Florida town of 1,000 collects $400,000 in traffic tickets, faces investigation

The town of Waldo, Florida, population 1,000, is under fire right now after the city’s police department wrote nearly 12,000 speeding tickets last year and collected $400,000 in fines.

According to CBS News, the state of Florida has laws banning ticket quotas; however, the problem area involves six different speed limits in just a couple of miles. As drivers enter the city at 65 mph, it drops down to 55, 45 and 35. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-towns-notorious-speed-traps-under-investigation/

Resident Pat Burgess said in the story that police are just waiting to catch people because they have to meet the budget. “And that’s just wrong,” she said.

The city’s police department was disbanded earlier this year, and the sheriff’s department in neighboring Bradford County has been put in charge of law enforcement for Waldo.

Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith said the prompt to write so many tickets was considered “cash register justice. “That’s legalized robbery, and we shouldn’t be doing that.”

Waldo’s mayor declined to speak with CBS News.

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