By Lawrence DeCicco
Lawrence DeCicco, Princeton
One may wonder what Princeton can possibly have in common with Ferguson, Missouri. In my view, it is overly aggressive use of fines to raise town revenue.
Ferguson was cited in the recent Department of Justice Report, as using its municipal court system through fines to excessively fund its municipal budget on the backs of its citizens. The state of Missouri has a statue that limits the amount of municipal funds that can be raised through municipal fines to fund general operating coast.
Unfortunately, to my knowledge, New Jersey does not have a similar statute in order to cramp and cap Princeton’s style. While Princeton politicians and police claim there are no specific quotas on tickets to be issued or dollars to be raised, their aggressive policing is legendary and belies their claim.
As examples, the excessive cost of parking fines, now over $40 per ticket; speed traps, as on the bottom of Elm as it meets Mountain Road, that require drivers to ride their brake downhill to avoid going over the purposely low 25 mph speed limit and on Mountain Road itself.
Other examples include the hiring and cost of full-time traffic code enforcement personnel with their scooters as opposed to using regular police enforcement for parking violations, the excessive cost for meter parking, the half-hour meters that allow shoppers to do next to nothing before it’s fine time and the chalking of tires to catch all those scurrilous meter feeders.
All of the above point to a culture of overly aggressive code enforcement, not for public safety, but for revenue enhancement on the back of the public. It is just like Ferguson. Perhaps next the Department of Justice should do a racial demographic on just how all those tickets and dollars break out.
Lawrence DeCicco
Princeton
