After reading Rick Spruill’s article in the Anderson Independent about the revenue brought in from traffic citations in Anderson, a line from the song in The Dukes of Hazzard, came quickly to mind:

"Making their way the only way they know how but that’s just a little bit more than the law will allow."

Mr. Spruill reported that over the past few years, Anderson has brought in over $1,868,218 in revenue from traffic citations. More specifically the break down is as follows:

 

Anderson city traffic fines, 2005-2009

2005: $306,506

2006: $343,566

2007: $313,139

2008: $468,968

2009: $436,039

 

So we had a recession and some money had to be made up somewhere? The best part of the article is the last paragraph where Mr. Spruill was inquiring with Capt. Jim Stewart about quotas. Capt. Stewart denied that there were in ticket quotas but said they do compare from year to year.

Capt Stewart stated:

“We keep count to see how we compare and to track trends,” he said. “The number one priority of road patrol is not to issue tickets, it’s to reduce injuries and fatalities. There are a lot more cars on the road and a lot of our wrecks come as people are entering and leaving a business.”