Traffic Tickets

The road through Hopewell, Va., isn't exactly paved with gold, but a mile-and-a-half stretch of interstate generated $2-million worth of speeding tickets for the town last year - and a fight between the AAA and the local sheriff.  AAA Mid-Atlantic, decrying "heavy-handed traffic enforcement tactics," said the 14,000 tickets written last year for a stretch of Interstate 295 through the town "appears to be about more than safety. " The speed limit is 70 mph. Sheriff Greg Anderson said officers won't write up tickets until a driver is going a minimum of 81 miles an hour.

The acting police chief in San Fernando has been placed on leave after the city launched an investigation into whether he tried to a fix a traffic ticket that had been given to an aide to a local congressman. Lt. Jeff Eley was removed from his post Jan. 19 after a video surfaced on YouTube showing an officer handing a running-a-stop-sign citation to Fred Anthony Flores, an aide to Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village). The Nov. 23 ticket did not arrive at the courthouse in time for a Jan. 4 hearing, said City Manager Al Hernandez.

Ten Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle officers have sued the city, alleging that their supervisors retaliated against them for resisting traffic ticket quotas, according to a court filing reviewed Thursday. Attorneys for West Traffic Division Officers Philip Carr, Kevin Cotter, Timothy Dacus, Peter Landelius, Kevin Ree, Kevin Riley, Josh Sewell, Vincent Stroway, James Wallace and Jason Zapatka filed suit a week ago in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Among their allegations is that LAPD supervisors punished them for refusing to follow orders to implement traffic ticket quotas.

Parking pass Re "L.A. officials get special clout on parking tickets," May 20, and "L.A. drops its parking Gold Cards," May 21 Sporting event tickets, concert tickets and now parking tickets: It's been a tough year for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The city continues to cry poverty and look for ways to increase fees and taxes, and yet it paid a contractor to provide favors to insiders by reducing parking fines or voiding tickets entirely, without explanation.

Approximately 1,000 Los Angeles city parking citations over a two-year period were dismissed — some without justification — through an obscure service known as the "Gold Card Desk" that allows the mayor and other elected officials to fast-track citation reviews, a new audit has found. The service, which few outside of city government appear to know about, partly involves a plastic parking bureau "Gold Card" that is distributed to city offices. It includes a special phone number to call and on the back side notes that the holder may have an "urgent need to resolve any parking citation matter which requires special attention.

Starting Saturday, Californians will pay more for traffic tickets, face lower penalties for possessing marijuana and find less artificial trans fat in their donuts. Under hundreds of new state laws, they'll also pay higher fines for committing domestic violence and break the law if they cruelly impersonate someone on the Internet. Those under 21 must undergo safety training before riding a motorcycle. Some health insurance regulations have changed, new tax credits are available for "green" businesses and the state is offering $30 million more in aid to small businesses.

California motorists, already in sticker shock over rising fines for parking and traffic tickets, should prepare for more beginning Saturday. The state is adding $4 to the price of every traffic ticket. The fee will pay for emergency air transport services because of a revenue shortfall in Medi-Cal funding. It is set to generate an estimated $34 million a year through 2016, according to state estimates. FOR THE RECORD: Traffic fines: In the Dec. 31 LATExtra section, an article about the state's addition of a $4 fee to the price of every traffic ticket stated that a proposal would have allowed cities to ticket drivers who failed to make full stops, based on photos taken by red-light cameras.

Some 45% of red-light camera tickets issued in Los Angeles are currently unpaid, partly because holds are not placed on driver's licenses and vehicle registrations for unsettled photo enforcement infractions, city officials said Wednesday. The disclosure came as City Controller Wendy Greuel issued an audit that found the photo enforcement program bypassed some of the city's most dangerous intersections and costs the city more than $1 million a year to operate, despite fines and fees that can exceed $500 per infraction.

Los Angeles police officers have been told they face possible discipline if they ask a judge to dismiss traffic charges against motorists when they can't recall the details of the alleged infractions, according to an internal memo sent to officers by top LAPD officials. Under a new directive, which was made after court officials noticed an apparent rise in the number of such dismissal requests, "officers are required to testify to the best of their ability" and, in instances in which they cannot remember what occurred, must base their testimony on what they wrote on the citations.

State lawmakers Friday moved forward with a crackdown on reckless driving by paparazzi trying to photograph celebrities, and acted to block cities from grabbing the state's share of money from traffic tickets. The two pieces of legislation were approved by the state Senate, which sent the paparazzi bill back to the Assembly to agree on amendments. AB 2479 would impose penalties of up to $5,000 with the possibility of jail time for photographers caught driving in a dangerous manner to get photos or video of celebrities.