Glendora Breaks Down Traffic Ticket Fines

While traffic tickets may mean expensive fines, Glendora Police say the city is not seeing much of those dollars.

Police Chief Rob Castro said the city – curious over its declining revenue from traffic tickets – conducted an audit with Los Angeles county to track down where the dollars actually end up, and the results were surprising.

“There’s a huge misconception that we’re writing tickets for the purpose of generating revenue, and that’s not the case when it comes to vehicle violations,” said Castro.

Cities usually receive about 80 percent of the baseline fee for traffic tickets. Castro said the city went through the cumbersome process of tracking down the money trail through different county departments and found the county’s added fines were four or five times greater than the baseline fee, with much of the fees going toward items such as court construction costs and night court.

The audit showed cities receiving just a small percentage of the final costs of a traffic ticket.

On a $160 seatbelt violation, the city receives $16. For a $286 speeding ticket, the city receives $30. For a $194 jaywalking ticket, the city receives $24. On a $50 ticket for an unregistered vehicle, the city receives $3.

Castro said each year, the revenue generated from the roughly 4,000 tickets Glendora Police write each year has steadily decreased, with added fees increasing while the baseline rate continues to remain the same. Many times, said Castro, cities are not aware of new fees tacked onto traffic tickets.

Castro said the police department budgeted $220,000 this fiscal year for revenue in traffic violations. However, with just a few months left in the fiscal year, the city has received $89,000 in revenue, way off their target revenue, said Castro.

“[Writing tickets] is not a money making operation for cities at all,” said Castro. “Actually, we end up losing money.”

Taking into consideration an officer’s time in writing a ticket, processing fees, paperwork, and paying an officer to appear in court when a ticket is contested, Castro said the city may end up paying much more than they actually receive from the initial ticket.

“When writing tickets, we’re just trying to correct a behavior,” said Castro.