DORAVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming that an Atlanta suburb improperly relied on fines and fees to finance its budget.
U.S. District Judge Richard Story recently dismissed a case brought against the city of Doraville by four people represented by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian group.
The 2018 lawsuit alleged that the DeKalb County town excessively relies on fines and fees, which make up roughly 15 percent of its overall revenue.
Most cities that size get a far smaller share of revenue from fines and fees. Reliance on fines became a national issue after the U.S. Justice Department sued the city of Ferguson, Missouri, over its heavy reliance on fines following the police shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.
The plaintiffs argued enforcement was driven by the need to generate revenue, not by regular law enforcement purposes. Doraville, though, argued that heavy traffic and the need to keep up property values were motivating enforcement.
Story found that the city’s municipal judge didn’t have a direct financial interest in how much the city collects in fines, and that the plaintiffs hadn’t proven that police and code enforcement officers were writing tickets for the sake of driving up revenue.
“Absent other evidence that the city’s need for revenue somehow infects its officers’ policing, the court is unwilling to conclude that the city’s budgetary practice renders the entirety of its law enforcement operation unconstitutional,” Story wrote.
The Institute for Justice said in a news release that it disagrees that revenue needs weren’t driving ticketing and plans to appeal the decision.
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