Thousands of Gwinnett drivers have steered clear of speeding tickets since the state revoked permission for county and municipal police to use laser and radar speed detection devices.
But that lost revenue could put a dent the county's budget.
Since the ban took effect Jan. 1, the revenue from Recorder's Court sent to the county's general fund has dipped by $400,000, from $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2010 to $2.1 million during the first quarter of 2011. That means Gwinnett County is on track to lose $1.6 million by the end of the year if the pattern holds.
Money in the county's general fund pays for a wide variety of items, including police salaries, court operations, elections and fire protection.
Records show many more speeders are avoiding the blue light special. Only 1,572 speeding tickets were issued during the first three months of this year, compared with 5,503 during the same period last year.
It might be even worse if Gwinnett sheriff's deputies hadn't stepped in. Because the sheriff is an elected office, his department is exempt from the ban. Deputies have partnered with city police departments to run radar detection on some municipal roadways since February.
"We're not doing it at the level it was being done before," said Stacey Bourbonnais, spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department. "We're just trying to fill in the void until that service delivery dispute is settled."
Police were forced to holster their radar guns because the county and its 15 city governments failed to reach agreement on a strategy to provide services such as policing, public health and road maintenance. The deadline for an agreement was in March 2009.
The standoff has cost the county and cities the ability to get state grants or permits, including permits for radar and laser speed detection. Gwinnett is the first county to face such extreme consequences since the law requiring counties and cities to agree on a service delivery strategy took effect in 1998.
The dispute has been dragged into court. A ruling on the case is still pending from Chief Judge David E. Barrett of the Enotah Judicial Circuit, said Gwinnett spokesman Joe Sorenson.
Because of the delay associated with issuance of tickets and their subsequent court dates, Sorenson said, the county does not expect to have an accurate assessment of the potential impact on the 2011 budget until later this spring.
In the cross-section of humanity that is Gwinnett traffic court, it isn't hard to find an opinion about speeding tickets.
"The [police] come out at certain times because I feel like they've got a quota to meet," said Antoinette Matthews, who stood in line at the Recorder's Court window to pay a fine on Friday. "I don't believe that it has to do with safety."
Other drivers think speed enforcement is a necessary evil.
"Sometimes people drive like crazy," said Oscar Pujols, a Lawrenceville resident who was paying a fine. "There are good things and bad things about speed enforcement."
The slowdown on speeding enforcement doesn't seem to have affected public safety. Accidents with injuries are up only slightly this quarter to 1,078, compared with 1,009 during the first quarter of 2010. The number of fatal accidents is down from eight to six.
Cpl. Ed Ritter, Gwinnett police spokesman, said officers are focusing on enforcing other traffic laws until the dispute is settled.
"We were hoping it would be done already, but it's not up to us," Ritter said. "It's up to the judge."
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