As we’ve discussed many times before, small municipalities in Saint Louis County (and especially North Saint Louis County) have too often relied on traffic fines to run their municipalities. Residents, the press, and the federal government have all accused cities in this region of using police to generate revenue rather than focusing solely on public safety. Since the 1990s, Missouri has capped the amount to which a city can benefit from traffic fees, but lack of enforcement meant the law (known as the Macks Creek Law) was often ignored. A prime offender was Pine Lawn, which, before events in Ferguson put a spotlight on the region, collected as much as half of its general revenue from fines.

Pine Lawn’s decision to disband its police force is just the latest domino to fall following the passage of SB 5 in the Missouri legislature last year. That piece of legislation both tightens restrictions from the old Macks Creek law and provides real teeth for that law’s enforcement. Failing to keep fines and fees below 12.5% of general revenue can now lead to disincorporation in Saint Louis County. More and more cities, and now Pine Lawn, are deciding to pool resources or contract out policing.

Combining police forces offers the prospect of saving money for a city, and it can mean better service too. Larger police forces can pay officers more and attract better talent. Their training is often more extensive. And that’s something Pine Lawn can use, as their police department has had its fair share of scandal in recent years.

Pine Lawn’s decision to turn policing over to the North County Police Cooperative, rather than Saint Louis County, may be a cause for concern. The Cooperative is very new, and is unproven as of now. However, Pine Lawn’s officials say that it was the best offer they received, and if the service does not work for them, they can end the contract in six months’ time. That flexibility—the option to get rid of an entire government department in six months if it is not functioning properly—is a situation residents in other cities can only envy.  

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“The Post-Dispatch reports today that the city of Charlack is installing speed cameras along I-170 in near-north St. Louis County. The city is installing the camera on a state-owned bridge to give tickets for speeding on a federal/state highway. . . . The idea that the city will phase out the cameras once people drive more slowly is perhaps the most unbelievable statement I've heard a politician say in a long time. And who cares if they passed a budget that did not count on camera fines? All that means is that they can spend the money however they want once it starts flowing in.”

As of 2014, Charlack collected more than 20% of its total revenue from fines and fees.

But with the passage of SB 5, which caps Saint Louis County municipalities' fine revenue to 12.5% of general revenue, Charlack is in trouble. In fact, the Post-Dispatch recently reported that the city’s police force was on the verge of disbanding. The city council plans to vote on joining the North County Police Cooperative (with Vinita Terrace, Vinita Park, and Wellston).

Charlack is not alone in its predicament. As of 2014, 24 of Saint Louis County’s 90 municipalities collected more than 12.5% of their general revenue from fines and fees. And while some can continue to provide services despite the reduction in fine revenue, many cannot. They will have to combine services such as policing in order to survive.

The good news is that sharing policing and other public services among cities is far from unprecedented in Saint Louis County. An example of pooling services is the aforementioned North County Police Cooperative. But in addition to that group, 17 municipalities contract with Saint Louis County, and a further 16 contract with another city for police, as shown in the map above.

When municipalities combine police services (especially with the County government), they can save money, improve services, and reduce incentives to use policing as a method of generating revenue. Charlack’s move towards disbanding may be long overdue, but it is another sign of the positive impact SB 5’s reforms are having. As the Charlack’s mayor put it:

“With Sentate Bill 5 passing, we knew it was going to be inevitable, and instead of it taking the next six months to figure out, we said, ‘Let’s just do it now and everybody can have a Merry Christmas…’ ”

Let’s hope that other municipalities follow Charlack’s example—because the more, the merrier.

The post Under Pressure from SB 5, Charlack May Disband Police Force appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Saint Louis County contains 90 municipalities, some with less than 1,000 residents. Many of the smaller municipalities are in North Saint Louis County and rely heavily on traffic tickets and court fees. For example, Beverly Hills (population of 571) issued more than 3,000 tickets and collect more than $200,000 in court fees last year. Charlack, a small city in North Saint Louis County (population 1,362), derives 29 percent of its revenue through traffic fines alone. By contrast, most cities in Missouri receive less than 5 percent of their revenue from fines and fees.

But size is not everything. As the Post article points out, even the larger municipalities in North Saint Louis County are guilty of issuing numerous citations. Florissant (population 52,000) issued almost 30,000 traffic tickets for more than $3 million in fines last year, accounting for 13 percent of its revenue. Saint Ann, notorious for its I-70 speed trap, expects that 36 percent of its revenue ($3.3 million) will come from fines and court fees in 2014.

Furthermore, small Saint Louis County municipalities do not all rely so heavily on fines. For instance, Grantwood Village (population 863) only issues around 120 traffic tickets a year. In 2012, it collected only $34,000 in fines and fees. Black Jack, a small municipality in North Saint Louis County (population 6,920), receives less than 5 percent of its revenue from fines. What do Grantwood Village and Black Jack have in common? They both contract out police from Saint Louis County and do not operate their own police departments.

A combination of necessity and opportunity likely drives cities, large and small, to pursue aggressive citation policies: the necessity arising from a dearth of other funding sources, the opportunity from having a piece of Missouri’s highway system.

Fining residents to generate revenue, instead of promoting public order, is not the way to achieve good governance in Saint Louis County. In future blog posts, we will discuss these problems further and explore ways residents and policymakers can reform local governments.

The post Saint Louis County: Does It Have Too Many Municipalities appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

As if on cue, today’s Post-Dispatch has a story about a disagreement between St. Charles County and MoDOT regarding bicycle restrictions on state roads within St. Charles. One councilman, Joe Brazil (I have had the pleasure of meeting him, and we have praised him here in the past for his stances against annexation and TIF abuse), wants to ban bicyclists from certain state roads in the county. MoDOT is opposed. My purpose here is not to discuss this specific issue, but rather the process. Nonetheless, I don’t support banning bicyclists from any roads other than interstate highways, and I have to point out one comment in favor of the proposal to ban bikes by someone who, understandably, has a personal interest in the matter:

Among supporters was Stephen East of Cottleville, whose 16-year-old daughter was seriously injured in a 2003 accident on DD when the vehicle she was driving topped a hill and encountered a bicyclist in her lane. East said she swerved, ran off the road, hit a tree and was thrown from the car.

“Public safety trumps personal rights,” East said.

No, sir, it doesn’t. And it is exactly this far-too-common belief that our safety is more important than our rights that is causing us to lose our rights to safety zealots via death by a thousand cuts. I give you helmet laws, seat belt laws, closed swimming pools, and the fact that organizations can no longer just have a bake sale or parish pot luck because health regulations forbid food cooked at a home from being sold or given away elsewhere. Because, you know, that’s “dangerous.”

But I digress. MoDOT says St. Charles can’t enforce the ordinance because the Highway Commission won’t approve it. MoDOT says it simply won’t post the signs telling people about the law — making it invalid under state law, which specifies that traffic rules must be properly posted for people to see. So, if St. Charles passes the ban and MoDOT won’t allow the county to enforce it, there will be some sort of court challenge. That might be the only way to answer the question of who has final say about roads — the governmental jurisdiction that owns it or the governmental jurisdiction it passes through.

In my opinion, the final say on traffic laws should belong to the jurisdiction that builds, maintains, and “owns” the road, if for no other reason than consistency. Hopefully, this will be further clarified soon, and hopefully in a way that does not allow cities like Charlack to do whatever they please on state or county roads.

I’d be delighted to see a statewide ban on things such as red light cameras and speed cameras on all roads. As the laws are currently written, though, I don’t think there is any doubt that cities can do whatever they want on city roads. (Thanks to Combest for the link.)

The post More on MoDOT and Local Control of Roads appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Despite criticism that cameras are aimed at generating revenue, [the city’s mayor] said Charlack passed a budget that did not count on camera fines. He said the ultimate goal is to phase out the photo program once motorists regularly drive more slowly through town.

The idea that the city will phase out the cameras once people drive more slowly is perhaps the most unbelieveable statement I’ve heard a politician say in a long time. And who cares if they passed a budget that did not count on camera fines? All that means is that they can spend the money however they want once it starts flowing in.

I have argued that the many small cities in St. Louis County should continue to exist as long as the citizens want them to. Here is the conclusion to my Government in Missouri study:

Missourians have chosen to have a large quantity of smaller government units. They have also chosen to have a large number of elected officials, representing smaller areas than the national average, so that the citizens may be in closer contact with those officials and monitor them more effectively. Economies of scale can be exploited in larger governments, as shown in the graph of per-capita spending for class three counties, but the efficiencies and benefits of larger government are less common and less significant than often supposed. The assumption that larger, less fragmented government is a more capable and efficient provider of services does not stand up to initial analysis and is not supported by the research.

But behavior like installing speed cameras, which is nothing more than a technologically advanced version of St. George–style speed traps, makes me question that once again. I would certainly favor legislation at the state or county level to forbid these types of cameras on the road — at the very least, on state or county roads.

I believe that speed cameras, just like red light cameras, are nothing more than a giant scam. I also believe they violate our rights — most importantly, the right not to be tracked by cameras every moment of your life. I am confident that would have been the Eleventh Amendment included in the Bill of Rights, if cameras had been invented yet.

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