Estelline, Texas

Texas

A town of about a hundred and twenty people got nearly ninety percent of its money from traffic fines and seized property.

historicalroadsidepeople

Estelline has one police officer, and his main job is waiting for speeders. In 2012 the National Motorists Association put the town at number one on its list of the worst speed trap cities in North America, among places under fifty thousand people. Estelline had about a hundred and twenty residents. A civil rights case the following year showed that eighty-nine percent of the town's gross revenue for 2012 came from traffic fines and seized property. From 2000 through 2009 it collected the second highest traffic fine revenue per citizen in all of Texas. The town also fell behind on the state's cut. It owed six hundred thousand dollars for ticket income from 2006 and 2007, and by 2014 was paying that down at roughly ten thousand dollars a month. State auditors had already come through in 1999 and found the town owed fifteen thousand dollars in excess fines.

This is the first of 3 parts. The rest runs about 3 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
A 2013 civil rights case revealed that 89 percent of Estelline's 2012 gross revenue came from asset forfeiture.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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