Question 1: How many traffic tickets did Maine write last year?

 

Last year the Maine State Police and local police officers around the state wrote 57,103 traffic tickets. 44,481 (78%) of them ended up with a fine imposed by the Violations Bureau of the Maine Judicial Branch. The fines totaled just under $8 million.

 

The state projected that it will earn $16.6 million this fiscal year from all fines: traffic tickets as well as other legal penalties.

 

That’s less than 3% of the total revenue the state expects to collect this year, including taxes and all other collections.

 

That’s a pretty small percentage, which is likely one of the ways drivers benefit from having traffic tickets collected at the state level instead of by cities or counties. Outlets like USA Today have reported on small towns like Peninsula, Ohio and Coffee City, Texas that are writing 10 to 20 traffic tickets per person because their city relies on those tickets for a third or more of their budget. 

 

But the State of Maine is operating with lots of money and doesn’t rely as much on traffic fines. So police officers might feel less pressure to give you a ticket for a minor infraction. 

 

Question 2: How do these traffic fines compare to other states?

 

It’s tough to make comparisons because most other states collect traffic fines at the local level.

 

But the traffic fines in Maine break down to $6.91 for each of the 1.15 million adults in the state.

 

That’s a lot less than many of the major cities in the NorthEast. New York City traffic fines total $152 per adult residents. Boston is $113. (data as of 2018).

 

Question 3: You’ve told us there’s some missing details from your info. Why?

 

The court system’s press team was kind enough to put together some data on traffic tickets for me, but I was hoping to share much more detailed information with you, like which cities’ residents paid the most in traffic tickets and how much money the most expensive traffic ticket in the state was worth.

 

I wasn’t able to because when I filed an open records request with the court system, they reminded me that Maine’s Freedom of Access Act doesn’t apply to the judicial branch.

 

There’s only six other states that bar residents from filing an open records request with the judicial branch. It’s an entire third of the government that’s completely exempt from disclosing information to the public. 

 

Question 4: How does that affect everyday people?

 

Open records laws are arguably the single most important tool the public has for holding government accountable.

 

Our organization filed over 55,000 requests last year around the country. But the laws differ in every state, leaving lots of gaps in transparency. Another state that allows us to request court records will be able to provide more info on traffic tickets. But last week we talked about local pensions in Maine - there’s 17 states that don’t let the public view pension payouts, so Maine deserves credit for releasing that info.

 

Last year we had some issues in Maine where we had to threaten legal action against Portland Public Schools before they released their payroll and other records to us. But so far this year we’ve mostly been successful filing requests around the state.