Topic summary
Speed trap
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Speed limit enforcement.
Speed traps
Some jurisdictions in the United States have been found to fine motorists merely to generate revenue, rather than purely to assure safe driving, taking advantage of their unfamiliarity of the area or unwillingness to fight an out-of-town traffic ticket to assure them a constant stream of municipal funding. In the Southern United States, some towns have annexed thin strips of land far away from, and barely connected to, contiguous municipal limits to extend their authority along the highway to police stretches in isolated areas far away from any settlement or problem stretch of road which may justify a slower speed limit. In 2017 Damascus, Arkansas was investigated and prosecuted by state authorities for breaking state law by generating more than 30% of town revenue through traffic citations. In 2014, Waldo, Florida had its police department disbanded after the police were found to be issuing speeding tickets based on a quota system.