Judge Quits Over Speeding Ticket Quota, Says Police Only Concerned With Revenue, Not Safety

Published: June 8, 2015

First, it was the "Dirty Thirty," a line of four towns along a 30-mile stretch of Interstate 45 south of Dallas that issue a high volume of traffic tickets.

Now, welcome to the "Texas Triangle" – a group of small towns in Falls and Robertson counties southeast of Waco that are also in the ticket game, according to a longtime municipal court judge who said he quit over what he described as a ticketing quota system.

Revenue generated from tickets pays for a lot of small town police departments in Texas. Without ticket income, some couldn't afford a police force.

"Normally, when they pull you over for safety, they ask the 'safety' kind of questions. They ask you for insurance; they check your tags. This was none of that," said Don Shaheen, one of the thousands of Texans who got speeding tickets in April.

Instead of being concerned about safety, he said the officer just wanted to write a ticket and then get on to the next one.

"This guy just took my license, gave me a ticket, and — you know — that was pretty much it," said Shaheen, who got a ticket in Palmer.