Better driving, or ‘blue flu’? Huge recent drop in Kansas City traffic tickets

Kansas City police are writing far fewer tickets this year.

Maybe violations have dropped, despite much more traffic and activity after the COVID-19 year of 2020. Maybe Kansas Citians are just following the law.

It’s also possible officers have been taken away from traffic enforcement duties to focus on violent crime and murder.

But there’s a more troubling possibility: Police may be writing fewer tickets because of the ongoing budget dispute with City Hall, a milder version of the so-called “blue flu.” Fewer tickets provide less revenue to the city, pinching the budget while the police funding argument works its way through the courts.

The department says the ticket slump is just a manpower issue. “We are down 10 officers in the enforcement unit,” said spokeswoman Capt. Leslie Foreman. “Our parking control staff is at seven, but slotted for 14.”

Some officers on the street are blaming Mayor Quinton Lucas for the lack of timely enforcement and response, one Kansas City resident recently wrote City Council member Andrea Bough. That suggests something more than manpower is involved.

“Are they purposely delaying responses so they can make a political point?” the constituent asked.

Lucas said Monday he has no evidence that the slowdown in ticket-writing is a response to the budget dispute. But he said it illustrates the problems with how the department is managed.

“Why are we seeing a lower service delivery as compared to the prior year, when the (police) budget has not changed dramatically?” he said. “There are interesting choices being made at the departmental level, and I think you are seeing that.”

Kansas Citians deserve a full explanation for the slowdown in traffic enforcement. The Board of Police Commissioners should insist on a public discussion of the phenomenon the next time it meets.

Speeding, DUI tickets down after police budget dispute

The short-term trend is clear. The police wrote 3,845 speeding tickets in May, according to department figures. In June — after the City Council and Lucas redirected $42 million in police spending, which the KCPD will now have to negotiate over, and lawsuits started to fly — Kansas City police wrote just 2,446 speeding tickets, a drop of close to 35%.

Sign and signal violations, right-of-way infractions, lane usage, even DUI citations dropped from May to June as well. Overall, citations dropped 25% from May to June.

So far this year, police have issued 51,824 citations. Last year — as thousands of commuters stayed home because of COVID — 71,437 tickets were written. That’s a drop of about 28% from then to now.

Are Kansas Citians suddenly driving more safely? The evidence is mixed. Fatalities are down from last year, but total accidents are up 15% from 2020.

We do know that a major reduction in speeding tickets and other citations would cramp the city’s budget. The current budget assumes nearly $6.6 million this year from the traffic violations bureau; a drop of 25% would cost the city more than $1.6 million in revenue.

To be fair, the decline in traffic enforcement is a long-term trend. Traffic tickets in Kansas City have been on a downward trajectory for many years. In fiscal year 2016, Kansas City police wrote an average of more than 18,000 traffic tickets each month; last year, roughly 11,000 drivers were cited.

In 2017, then-City Manager Troy Schulte complained about the drop in ticket revenue, which he said posed a threat to public safety.

We don’t want the city to issue tickets that aren’t warranted. Putting more money in City Hall’s pocket should never be the end goal of traffic enforcement. Fines are a deterrent, not a revenue-raising device.

Tickets are necessary because they make drivers slow down, or obey traffic laws. That makes the streets safer for everyone.

But Kansas Citians should be concerned if the ongoing budget dispute between the City Council and the Kansas City Police Department has prompted officers to write fewer tickets, or take their jobs less seriously. They should also know if officers have been directed away from traffic enforcement because of the violent crime crisis.