Police

Daryl James and Bobbi Taylor | 12.5.2023 9:55 AM

Motorists caught speeding in Peninsula, Ohio, have options: They can pay with Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or PayPal. But if they want to dispute a ticket, the flexibility ends.

Before vehicle owners can appear in municipal court to defend themselves, they must pay a $100 "filing fee." No exceptions. No discounts. No deferrals. It's the cost of admission—roughly the same as a one-day ticket to Disneyland.

Many drivers skip the expense and plead guilty, which works well for Peninsula. In just the first five months after launching a handheld photo radar program in April 2023, this village south of Cleveland generated 8,900 citations and $400,000 in revenue. That's an average of about 1,800 citations and $110,000 in revenue per month.

These are staggering numbers for a community of just 536 residents. If revenue from the program continues at this rate, Peninsula could meet nearly its entire $1 million annual budget from traffic enforcement alone. Six police officers, rotating among nine strategic locations, could keep the village solvent with virtually no help from tax collectors.

Locking the courthouse doors to all but the most determined defendants—who also have $100 to........

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