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Abstract
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Traffic policing is a racial justice issue. In this section, I detail how Black drivers are disadvantaged by systemic racism at every level of traffic enforcement. Localities with higher Black populations rely more heavily on fines and forfeitures for their budgets, whether because of racial bias or financial need.37 Black drivers are subject to traffic stops at disproportionately high rates compared to white drivers.38 After being pulled over, Black drivers are also more likely than white drivers to receive tickets.39 Racial economic inequality means that tickets are more likely to be unaffordable for Black drivers.40 When drivers cannot pay, they may be forced into crushing debt that can result in incarceration.
The use of fine and forfeiture revenue to fund municipal governments has greatly expanded in the past two decades.42 While such revenue made up what was effectively 0% of city revenues in 2002, it had increased to 2.24% by 2012.43 A study examining jurisdictions across the U.S. making $100,000 or more in fines or court revenue, found that nearly 600 jurisdictions in the United States derive at least 10% of their budgets from fines.44 In over 720 localities, the collected fines and forfeitures were the equivalent of $100 from every adult resident.45 Traffic citations make up a large portion of revenue from fines and forfeitures.46 Communities with higher Black populations often rely on fines and forfeitures for government funding.47 In Chicago's higher and middle-income, majority-Black suburbs, local governments disproportionately rely on fine-based revenue compared to white suburbs of similar affluence.48 The study found that these racial divides in local government funding came about because "racism is baked into seemingly 'colorblind' processes of municipal governance."49 All of the suburbs reviewed in the study considered revenue from businesses and sales taxes, "other people's money," to be "good" revenue or preferred sources of revenue.50 However, because of the legacy racial barriers facing Black communities, these communities were less able to attract the types of commercial business that "[w]hite suburbs easily attract."51 For example, commercial investors consider demographics when making location decisions and prefer to stay away from the low- income Black suburbs that, as a legacy of historic red-lining, often abut or surround middle-income Black suburbs.
Language: en |