City officials weren’t kidding when they promised a crackdown on crazy, dangerous driving in Milwaukee. There were 34,770 traffic cases opened in municipal court from January through April this year, up 289% from the 8,944 cases opened during the same period last year. Those cases reflect police ticket-writing activity. It is difficult to say whether the increased enforcement will convince reckless drivers not to be reckless, but it is sure to increase city revenue through the collection of traffic-related forfeitures.
So, a modest proposal: Take a portion of the increased traffic citation revenue and use it to pay for full-time lawyers to represent indigent defendants in municipal court. This would not require bigger forfeitures or a reduction of any other city service. It simply would use a share of new revenue to offer legal representation to those generating most of the money.
The city goes all in to catch, prosecute and collect from ordinance violators. It has police officers to write tickets; it has assistant city attorneys who prosecute accused violators; and it has contracted collection agencies to track down those who don’t pay their forfeitures. But when it comes to helping municipal court defendants make their cases, the city is much, much tighter with its cash. To its credit, the Milwaukee Common Council did approve $45,000 as part of the 2017 budget to hire a part-time contracted attorney to represent indigent defendants. To the city’s discredit, however, it now is the middle of 2018, and the contract has yet to be executed.
City’s Poor More Heavily Ticketed
Drivers from poor neighborhoods are more likely than those from wealthier areas to be issued traffic tickets, according to 2017 municipal court data. Milwaukee police also issue far more traffic citations to African Americans, demographically more likely to be poor, than to Caucasians. In 2017, tickets in 69% of municipal court traffic cases were issued to African American drivers, while just 13% went to white drivers.
Lawyers are needed to help indigent defendants tell their stories and to help them negotiate the municipal court system. Lawyers aware of traffic stop patterns also can ensure they do not follow the method of “stop-and-frisk”—the systematic harassment of mostly young black men that thrived under Police Chief Edward Flynn. Independent lawyers representing indigent defendants also can help negotiate deals with prosecutors and help clients avoid a significant consequence of traffic citations and poverty: driver’s license suspension.
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The most frequently cited offense in Milwaukee is (surprise!) driving on a suspended license. There were 6,501 municipal court suspended license cases opened during the first four months of 2018, up from 2,033 during the same period last year. These suspensions have a big poverty factor. People facing traffic fines who can’t afford to pay them simply don’t. Statewide, 56% of driver’s license suspensions are due to failure to pay forfeitures, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Unfortunately, traffic forfeitures are not income-indexed. A traffic ticket that is a mere annoyance for some is an impossible budget breaker for others. Prosecutors can cut deals, though, and do it all the time. A good defense lawyer can help find that necessary middle ground, where the forfeitures are not so onerous they leave the defendant angry and hopelessly unable to pay, while still penalizing the driver for breaking the law. Municipal court defendants don’t have the knowledge or savvy to negotiate well on their own behalf with prosecutors entirely familiar with the judges, the court and the law.
The City of Milwaukee uses its police and prosecutors to generate money from some of its poorest residents. It seems a very small thing indeed to use a share of that money to ensure that they are fairly represented in court.
Gretchen Schuldt is executive director of the Wisconsin Justice Initiative, which advocates for progressive change in the Wisconsin justice system by educating the public about its real-life impacts and partnering with other organizations to achieve more just outcomes.
