Speed Trap Karma Part 1: NMA E-Newsletter #697
Reason.com recently published a list of eleven U.S. towns where their police forces were either disbanded or their autonomy as a governmental entity was dissolved because of an addiction to, and dependence on, ticket revenue. We thought it would be informative to present excerpts from Reason’s article for those cities along with select driver-sourced comments […]
Why Fight a Traffic Ticket?
Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on the NMA Blog in March 2018. Did you ever feel that you were already considered guilty when you received a traffic ticket even though, under the US Constitution, you are innocent until proven guilty? This includes any kind of traffic ticket coming from either a law enforcement officer […]
Paradise Ticket Quota Extreme: NMA Weekly E-Newsletter #636
Multiple times a year, the US Department of Transportation issues grants to states for specific traffic enforcement programs. That money trickles down to cities so they can pay officers overtime. Honolulu police officers are currently participating in one such grant program this month. To measure the program’s effectiveness, the Honolulu Police Department wants officers to […]
Criminal Traffic Court is the Best Option
By Gary Biller, NMA President Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared as an NMA E-Newsletter #450 in August 2017. If you would like to receive the NMA E-Newsletter every Sunday in your inbox, subscribe HERE. Whose side are we on anyway? The NMA objects when cities lower the traffic court bar, downgrading routine moving violations […]
Flipping the Stacked Deck against Civil Asset Forfeiture
By Gary Biller, NMA President Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared as an NMA Weekly Newsletter #594 emailed to members in May 2020. If you would like to receive the newsletter, join today the thousands of other active motorists who have made that choice! There are many forms of legitimized stealing. The government has perfected […]
Are Small Towns Addicted to Traffic Fines and Fees?
Editor’s Note: This article was initially written for the Spring edition of Driving Freedoms magazine and instead appeared as NMA weekly E-Newsletter #592 in May 2020. The information here pertained primarily to life before the COVID-19 crisis. Still, we believe traffic fines and fees will be even more of an issue for small towns (and […]
Driving in America: An Out-of-State Speeding Ticket –Has this Happened to You?
The NMA Office receives numerous calls throughout the year from members asking how to defeat a speeding ticket they happened to receive driving in another state. Unfortunately, these are rather difficult to fight because many small towns and counties target out-of-state drivers. After all, authorities know they won’t come back to fight the ticket. Ticketing […]
Officer Frank
This post originally appeared as NMA E-Newsletter #538 on May 5, 2019. Editor’s Note: Over the years, the NMA has received occasional contact from law enforcement officers who have complained about department policies, sometimes crafted to avoid direct violation of state anti-ticket-quota laws, which force officers to write a predetermined number of citations during each […]
The love of money
The word that got all the media attention shouldn’t have been a surprise to anybody. Quotas. A federal prosecutor said Massachusetts State Police had ticket quotas. Eight to ten tickets per four hours or they would have their pay cut. It’s only news if you’re not paying attention. The same situation was reported years ago. […]
The Real Police Overtime Scandals: NMA Weekly E-Newsletter #507
Much has been written about the Massachusetts State Police Overtime Scandal. A number of officers have been arrested for federal counts of embezzlement for allegedly cutting hours or outright skipping overtime (OT) traffic enforcement shifts on the MA turnpike while getting paid in full. Forty-two members of Troop E have been implicated and the troop […]