“And we was fined fifty dollars and had to pick up the garbage… in the snow.” Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant
Governments collect revenue in a variety of ways, some more visible than others: property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, death taxes, business taxes (which are really taxes on consumers), and taxes on alcohol and tobacco.
Nobody likes to pay taxes. But, one particular source of revenue might undermine community trust in police: fines, fees and civil asset forfeitures collected by law enforcement.
Finding data on how much in way of fines, fees and forfeitures cities, counties and states collect isn’t easy. The U.S. Census Bureau does collect the information in surveys sent to tens of thousands of government entities across the nation, but, the data is aggregated into a general miscellaneous category of revenue (oddly enough, Census did report fines, fees and forfeiture revenue separately from about the turn of the last century to 1938). With some effort, the raw data can be pulled from the Census database, however.
The next challenge is breaking down revenue collection by city, county and state. Unfortunately, there are several large cities and counties around the nation that have consolidated operations, thus merging city and county fines and fees revenue. Excluding these cities, there are 67 cities in the U.S. with a population in excess of 250,000 for which data on fines and fees is available.
The per capita law enforcement-related fees, fines, and forfeitures revenue collected by city government in 2013, as adjusted by the metro area’s regional cost of living, varies widely. From a high of $226.78 per person in Washington D.C. and $97.07 in Chicago to nothing at all in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Omaha, Nebraska; Raleigh, North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina; and Lincoln Nebraska. Charlotte, North Carolina came the closest to zero collections at $0.21 per capita. (Note of caution: some cities may, in fact, collect fines and forfeiture revenue, but may not properly report it to the Census Bureau.) Slightly tempering Washington, D.C.’s astounding per capita collections of $226.78 is the fact that this includes county government functions as well, which average almost $10 per capita across more than 100 metro counties surveyed, thus, its city-to-city comparable collections are closer to $216.
“And we was fined fifty dollars and had to pick up the garbage… in the snow.” Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant
Governments collect revenue in a variety of ways, some more visible than others: property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, death taxes, business taxes (which are really taxes on consumers), and taxes on alcohol and tobacco.
Nobody likes to pay taxes. But, one particular source of revenue might undermine community trust in police: fines, fees and civil asset forfeitures collected by law enforcement.
Policymakers should reconsider making revenue collection a priority for law enforcement
Finding data on how much in way of fines, fees and forfeitures cities, counties and states collect isn’t easy. The U.S. Census Bureau does collect the information in surveys sent to tens of thousands of government entities across the nation, but, the data is aggregated into a general miscellaneous category of revenue (oddly enough, Census did report fines, fees and forfeiture revenue separately from about the turn of the last century to 1938). With some effort, the raw data can be pulled from the Census database, however.
The next challenge is breaking down revenue collection by city, county and state. Unfortunately, there are several large cities and counties around the nation that have consolidated operations, thus merging city and county fines and fees revenue. Excluding these cities, there are 67 cities in the U.S. with a population in excess of 250,000 for which data on fines and fees is available.
The per capita law enforcement-related fees, fines, and forfeitures revenue collected by city government in 2013, as adjusted by the metro area’s regional cost of living, varies widely. From a high of $226.78 per person in Washington D.C. and $97.07 in Chicago to nothing at all in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Omaha, Nebraska; Raleigh, North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina; and Lincoln Nebraska. Charlotte, North Carolina came the closest to zero collections at $0.21 per capita. (Note of caution: some cities may, in fact, collect fines and forfeiture revenue, but may not properly report it to the Census Bureau.) Slightly tempering Washington, D.C.’s astounding per capita collections of $226.78 is the fact that this includes county government functions as well, which average almost $10 per capita across more than 100 metro counties surveyed, thus, its city-to-city comparable collections are closer to $216.
Per Capita Fines, Fees, and Forfeitures Collected by City Government in 2013, as adjusted by the Regional Price Parity for the Metro Area for Cities with a Population Greater than 250,000.
I asked Jon Guze, Director of Legal Studies at the John Locke Foundation in North Carolina, a free market think tank, why it was that North Carolina’s cities ranked among America’s lowest in terms of law enforcement revenue collection. He said that North Carolina’s constitution acts to discourage municipal government from using law enforcement as revenue agents because cities and can’t keep the money, thus removing a major conflict of interest. Instead, North Carolina has a unified court system where all justice-related penalties, forfeitures, and fines revenue accrues to the state, not the locality.
Unfortunately, even North Carolina has a challenge with federal civil asset forfeiture procedures which allow for adoption of certain cases by federal law enforcement with the revenue from assets forfeited through civil procedure being split between local and federal agencies.