And here's part of a article from the Houston Chronicle
substantiating my point.
Houston Chronicle - Dec. 1, 1999 -
SIRENS SOUND OVER SAG IN TRAFFIC TICKETS
City officials come up with improvement plan
By MATT SCHWARTZ Copyright 1999
Brown administration officials said Wednesday that they
were implementing a "municipal court improvement plan"
in an effort to halt falling ticket revenues that have
begun to pinch city budget plans.
As of Oct. 31, the number of cases filed in Houston's
municipal courts were lagging behind year-to-date
expectations by nearly 80,000.
Much of that has been attributed to fewer traffic
tickets being written by Houston police. During October,
for example, police wrote 46,881 traffic tickets, by far
the smallest number of citations issued in a single
month during the last seven years. November was only
slightly better, with officers writing 47,363 citations.
In addition, administration officials said, municipal
court judges are dismissing 68 percent of the cases,
many of them because police officers do not show up for
court or leave before their cases are heard.
The city's Department of Finance and Administration is
projecting municipal court revenues will fall some $7.6
million short of estimates. Combined with other
projected shortfalls in sales taxes and miscellaneous
fees, the department is projecting the city's general
fund could wind up about $12 million below budget.
The city controller's office is projecting an even
greater shortfall of $31 million, $16.4 million of which
it attributes to sharp decreases in municipal court
collections.
Although the administration said it has implemented
nearly $12 million in spending cuts throughout almost
all city departments, it has turned its attention to
Houston's municipal courts. Donald Hollingsworth, Mayor
Lee Brown's executive assistant for public safety, said
the courts have become sluggish in processing cases and
collecting fines and fees.
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