Why Tickets Cost What They Do

Guest Post by Eric Peters

If you’ve been forced to pay the state money for not having caused any harm lately – i.e., been issued what is styled a “ticket” because you drove faster than an arbitrarily posted “speed limit” says you may, or made a right turn on red (also without causing any harm) or not worn a seatbelt, etc. – you will have noticed how much more money the state is extracting from your hide as punishment.

In order to fund the enforcement of this rigmarole, in a kind of chicken-or-the-egg feedback loop of serial predation.

The “egg” being what a single 2023 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor costs, that being just shy of $40,000.

The “chicken,” of course, being you (and me) when we get “pulled over” – as the euphemism styles being implicitly threatened with murderous violence if we do not – and are issued the “ticket,” which amounts to our helping to finance the equipment used to “pull us over.”

Isn’t it great?

Let’s say a small-town department of Armed Government Workers – for that is what “police” are, or at least, have become, if we are to use honest language – buys six of these Ford Explorers at about $40,000 each. That comes to just shy of a quarter-million dollars. Not counting all the Batman Gear – body armor, leg webbing, multiple mags for their semi-auto pistols – that most AGWs now suit up with every day (the assertion being they need to armor-up like Batman to “pull over” dangerous “civilians” – as they style us – though in fact working as a roofer or electrical line worker is far more dangerous than “pulling over” people).

That comes to a lot of money to recover.

Especially when you add in the cost of fueling these big, heavy – and thirsty – SUVs.

It is interesting to note that when AGWs still used cars to “pull over” people, the equipment they used cost much less. For example, the Ford Crown Victoria – which used to be the most commonly used car for “traffic enforcement” until it was cancelled after the 2011 model year – was priced under $30,000 new, for the “civilian” version (police – who are not in the military – love to think that they are; hence we are “civilians” to their “corporals,” “sergeants,” “lieutenants” and even five-star “generals.”)

The police version cost about $27,000 – which it could because it was very basic. Nothing new is. The rise in the cost of “civilian” vehicles reflects this – and so also the cost of enforcement vehicles used by AGWs who are also civilians.

So, about $13k less than what a new Explorer traffic-mulcter costs. Yes, inflation. But it’s still a roughly $6k uptick in real, inflation-adjusted dollars. Plus the Batman gear. And someone’s going to have to pay for that.

Guess who?

In Virginia, the state where I live, the fine for “speeding” is now at least $6 for each mile-per-hour over the arbitrarily posted maximum speed; with the baseline fine plus abut $60 in “court costs,” the total for a “little” ticket amounts to a lot. As in about $150. Enough to buy three tanks of gas for the AGW who issued the ticket!

The cost rises to $8 per mile – plus another $200 – in addition to “court costs” (as if it costs the court a cent to take your money) if the “speeding” occurs in a “residential” area.

Which is essentially everywhere nowadays.

Thus, a ticket for doing say 45 MPH in a “zone” posted 35 MPH will cost you close to $200. That equals about 40 percent of a month’s payment on a new Explorer police Interceptor. If an AGW issues just three such pieces of payin’ paper in one “shift” then he has paid for the ride he uses to take you (and many others) for one.

If you exceed whatever the posted limit is – anywhere – by 20 MPH or more it triggers what is styled a “reckless” driving charge. Thus, 56 MPH in a posted 35 zone in which probably 90 percent of the cars are doing at least 40-something. It is also considered “reckless” in Virginia to drive faster than 80 MPH anywhere – including on Virginia highways with posted speed limits of 70 MPH and almost everyone doing at least 75.

There are also “gotcha” tickets for “offenses” that have nothing to do with driving or the “safety” of other drivers, such as not wearing a seat belt, which is illegal and punishable – the punishment always taking the form of the government’s greasy paws emptying your wallet.

After all, someone’s going to have to pay for all those new SUVs – which they’ll use to make you pay for them. Plus the Batman gear.

When you hear that siren and see those wig-wags flashing, you’ll know just who that is.

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