Small towns strapped for cash sometimes decide to use their law enforcement agencies to generate a steadily increasing revenue stream. Towns that otherwise would never have been noticed by non-residents have achieved national notoriety by unofficially rebranding as Speed Trap, USA.
Sometimes this notoriety leads to punishment by other government agencies. A small town in Oklahoma was banned from enforcing traffic laws by the state’s Department of Safety after it came to light the town of 410 people was employing six police officers to haul in nearly $500,000 in fees in a single year — 76% of the town’s revenue.
Another small town is generating some national press about its abusive traffic enforcement operations. Brookside, Alabama has only 1,253 residents. But it has nine police officers, two drug dogs (including one named “Cash”), a mine-resistant SWAT vehicle obtained through the Defense Department’s 1033 program, and an unquenchable thirst for traffic
— source techdirt.com | Tim Cushing | Jan 27th 2022