Radar speed enforcement to return

Early last year, Gwinett County Police and most municipal departments lost their state permits to operate radar speed detection equipment.  This was the result of a lack of agreement between the county and cities regarding the provision of various services.  Following a tentative settlement to the dispute last week, these departments will soon begin nabbing speeders via radar again.  However, the key takeaway of the past year is that we now have concrete evidence of what we all knew all along: speed enforcement is not about safety but about revenue for local governments.

Taking away their ability to enforce speed-limit laws, local officials say, has been a major public safety concern.

Accident data from the past three years doesn't support those concerns. But there has been a significant financial toll on city coffers.

Financial records obtained via Open Records request show city police departments in Gwinnett lost at least $1.6 million in speeding ticket revenue compared to 2010. Lawrenceville, the largest city in the county, does not track those figures.

The biggest losers were Duluth, Lilburn and Suwanee, which lost more than $1 million collectively due to reduced speeding tickets.

Does that surprise you?  It sure doesn't surprise me.  Common sense tells you that other types of traffic violations are far more dangerous than "typical" speeding.  Yet, unless they cannot run speed traps, police departments place relatively less emphasis on these violations.  This is evidenced by significant increases in other categories of citations during the last year.

In Lilburn, citations rose 229 percent for improper and unsafe equipment; 76 percent for red-light violations; 51 percent for disregarding stop signs; 49 percent for no proof of insurance; and 46 percent for driving under the influence.

Don't misunderstand me: traffic enforcement is well within the proper authority and function of a police department.  Excessive speeding is definitely dangerous. I have no criticism for ticketing that driver that is weaving in and out of traffic 20 MPH faster than the flow of other vehicles.  However, when the entire flow of traffic is moving at 12 MPH over the limit, I find it disgusting to watch a police officer, usually from a city department, half hidden behind a bush in a car that violates the spirit of the prohibition of unmarked patrol cars cherry picking cars to randomly "tax" for speeding.

It is an old maxim that if you want to find out a root cause, you follow the money.  We have a case here where, though officials still continue to assert that speed enforcement is about safety, data from the past year shows this not to be true.  

Though Gwinnett's seven major city police departments issued about 17,000 fewer speeding citations in 2011 from the previous year, records show there were only 16 more accidents with injuries and two more with fatalities.

This strongly suggests that speed enforcement is more about government revenue enhancement.  This, in turn, lead to the conclusion that typical speed enforcement is an abuse of authority.  Therefore, why don't we decouple the profit incentive and see if police departments continue the same behavior?

I am not a lawyer so there may well be flaws in this suggestion.  However, I do see it as a starting point for discussion of serious and needed reform.  I would propose that the Georgia General Assembly pass a law that would funnel all traffic citation revenue into a single, state-operated central fund.  Because I recognize that departments have expenses that have to be covered to do the very real police work that is necessary, these expenses could then be funded from this common pool of fines.  There would need to be a mechanism that does not benefit a department's funding requests based on how much it contributes in fines.  To maintain such a link would defeat the entire purpose of this suggestion.

I recognize this raises some questions as to whether the authority of a city or county to enforce their laws is infringed.  However, many departments have shown they cannot be trusted to use their authority fairly within their role of enforcing the law rather than raising revenue.  Basically, they have brought the need for such legislation on themselves.  They made the bed, now it's time for them to lie in it.

If you want to speed in Gwinnett, now is your chance!

Let me first say, I am not advocating that you go out and flagrantly violate speed limits in Gwinnett.  But if you do, the Gwinnett County Police and most municipal police departments won't be able to ticket you using radar or laser speed detection devices.  Due to an ongoing dispute with local cities over the provision of services, the ability of police departments to use radar and laser speed guns has been suspended under a 1998 state law.

I have a hard time having a lot of sympathy on this one.  While I realize that traffic enforcement is a legitimate function of police departments and that there are definitely a minority of dangerous drivers that should be punished, I don't think there is much doubt that, despite the protests of law enforcement officials, a large part of traffic enforcement is all about the money.  While I have no hope this will ever happen, I would love to see the state legislature pass a law that somehow decouples writing traffic citations and the local government directly reaping financial gains from those efforts.  If all traffic fines went into a state fund rather than the local treasury, I firmly believe you would see a significant drop in the excessive, and with some municipal police departments (e.g., Duluth PD), abusive traffic enforcement.  We would quickly find out just how many speeding tickets are about safety.   As they say, follow the money.

In the meantime while the dispute remains unresolved, perhaps local police departments will actually do something like fighting crime.

Bannister blood test comes back negative; Charges dropped

CBS Atlanta has just reported that Commission Chairman Charles Bannister's blood test has come back negative for alcohol in his system.  This result confirms the 0.0 reading on a Breathalyzer test administered to the chairman prior to his arrest for DUI Monday night.  Combine this with the fact that there is no video of Bannister failing a field sobriety test and Bannister's claim that he would be exonerated is looking more and more likely.  (I would note, I do not put much stock in the field sobriety test failure.  If I had a police officer having me recite the alphabet starting at a letter other than A, on the side of a road, my nerves could cause me to get flustered and mess that up as well!)

What is going on here?  Is Bannister being setup for political purposes?  The story does shed some light on why the Sheriff's Department was involved.  Apparently, someone in the restaurant called an off-duty deputy who, in turn, phoned an on-duty deputy.  However, as I questioned previously, why did this tip not get forwarded to Gwinnett Police who normally handle traffic cases in this area?  According to the AJC, the fact that the Sheriff's department handled the arrest is not the only irregularity with this case.

Sheriff Butch Conway has stated that he stands behind his deputy.  So long as there is no evidence of a setup, I cannot argue with this because a good superior backs up his employees.  However, if something starts to look fishy, which certainly is shaping up to be the case here, Conway should absolutely look into this matter very closely.  The question is what he will say during a news conference today regarding the blood test results?  Don't forget that Conway backed Bannister's opponent, former commissioner Lorraine Green, in the last election.  Will the sheriff let politics get in the way of seeking out justice for a political opponent?  Stayed tuned.

UPDATE: Sheriff Conway has announced that DUI charges would be dropped against the chairman.  However, per the irregularities in this case, this should not be the end of the matter.  Someone, whether it be the sheriff or other authorities, should look into whether any laws have been violated in the treatment of Bannister.  Even if no laws have been violated, there should be close scrutiny that no law enforcement official abused their authority in order to humiliate Bannister with trumped up charges.

Bannister charged with DUI

The Buzz has been quiet lately as I have simply not had time to devote to the site (still open to accepting other contributors - let me know if you are interested in writing for the Buzz!).  However, after reading the news of Commission Chairman Charles Bannister being charged with DUI last night, I had to comment.

While I supported Bannister in his race against former Commissioner Lorraine Green two years ago, I have been less than pleased - to put it mildly - with the job performance of the chairman and the rest of the board since that time.  However, despite that, this is not a post to "pile on" the chairman.  Rather, after reading the latest news account of yesterday's events, I wanted to write to urge my fellow Gwinnett residents not to rush to judgment.  There are enough red flags to prompt the fair-minded observer to allow the facts of this situation come to light before forming a hardened opinion on guilt or innocence.

When I received a text from a friend last night telling me that 11Alive had tweeted that Charles Bannister had been charged with DUI, my initial inclination was to believe that he was guilty.  I mean, after all, DUI is pretty cut and dried right?  You get pulled over, you blow a high reading on a Breathalyzer...bam, DUI.  Not really any extenuating circumstances for that in my book.  However, as details of last night's events have emerged, I have begun to think "Hold on...maybe things are not as they seem:"

...the Breathalyzer producing a .000 reading.

Hmm.  Of course, given the description of Bannister's driving, the decision of Gwinnett Sheriff's Deputy M.G. Cummings to ask for a blood test was understandable:

"Once I received the blood kit I explained to the defendant that due to the results of the breath test being inconsistent with someone who had drunk a beer, as he admitted to at the scene of the pullover and at the jail, and his current manifestations, I requested he submit to the state test of his blood. He stated he would."

However, this raises another question to me.  Why was this incident being handled by the Sheriff's Department?  While I know the Sheriff's Department certainly has the authority to conduct traffic stops, in Gwinnett, I normally think of the Gwinnett County Police Department taking on that responsibility.  Could it be because the Sheriff is an elected official and, as such, not a direct report to Bannister?  Is it normal procedure for the GCSD to handle such incidents to avoid a situation where a county employee is arresting his boss?  If anyone knows about this, please post.  If the GCSD handling this is not standard operating procedure, I think asking why the Sheriff's office and not the police department was waiting outside the restaurant for the chairman to leave is a fair question.

While none of the above suggests that Bannister is definitively not guilty of the charge, these facts suggest to me that we be all the more cautious about jumping to conclusions.  Whether anyone agrees or disagrees with Chairman Bannister politically, as an American citizen, he has a right to be treated fairly under the law and not to be immediately assumed guilty due to political unpopularity.

I am absolutely not taking DUI lightly.  In fact, I feel that the justice system is too easy on those convicted of DUI.  This is a serious offense that takes too many innocent lives across our country.  However, before applying strict punishment, any American, including Chairman Bannister, must be proven guilty of a DUI charge.  Once that occurs or if the chairman admits guilt, only then is consideration of whether he should resign his office or any other response appropriate.

Commission approves more than $200 million in budget cuts

The Gwinnett County Commission voted last week to approve over $225 million in budget cuts.  As I wrote earlier last week, some residents were unhappy with some of the cuts, especially those targeting the budgets for the police and fire departments.  While automatically opposing budget cuts for public safety is understandable, the key here is at what are these cuts targeted?

First, let's be absolutely clear: deeps cuts were in order. Cuts are more palatable than a tax increase. Where I take issue is where these cuts were targeted.  Prior to the meeting, there was speculation that the Gwinnett "Quality of Life" unit could be on the chopping block.  Given this unit's focus of fighting property rights more so than real crime, I was completely in favor of such a cut.  However, rather than ax the Quality of Life unit, the board opted to cut the DUI task force.  I do not understand this move! One fights property rights - the other fights criminals that could kill you on our highways! The Quality of Life unit should have be at the top of the cuts for the police department.  Of course, I am hardly surprised that retaining funding for the Quality of Life unit was proposed by Mike Beaudreau whose commission track record is hardly one of championing property rights.

Regarding police department funding in general, when I stop seeing police officers parked along the road running radar/laser equipment to catch speeders as opposed to fighting real crime, I might get a little more upset about budget cuts for the department. In the last couple of weeks, I have seen three cops parked along Ronald Reagan Parkway doing speed enforcement. I see others near the Park Place Bridge on US 78. Coupling this with funding Quality of Life to go out worrying about how how far nails protrude and other victimless crimes, I cannot get too upset at at the cuts. When all police department funds are used to fight real, serious crime and not harass property owners or man radar guns, I will get upset at the cuts.

I would like to note, however, that, as critical as I often am of Comissioner Beaudreau, I do find myself in total agreement with one of his proposals.  Beaudreau offered an excellent idea to charge non-county residents for using Gwinnett County parks.  In fact, as a daily user of my local park, I would support a user fee for all those who actually use the parks, whether resident or not. The community does benefit from the parks so a county-funded system is appropriate. However, because those of us who actually go to the park and use the amenities benefit more, we should pay more than someone who does not. A user fee could be a nominal amount, perhaps $25 per year, just to ensure that the cost burden of these facilities is born more by those who use the system. A user fee would also capture direct contribution from those who use the facilities but are not property owners and, as such, do pay not the property taxes that fund the bulk of county government.

One other suggestion for revenue that I have not seen discussed is ads on Gwinentt transit buses.  (I read this suggestion from a Buzz reader, I believe, but I cannot find the reference.  I apologize that I cannot properly credit you for bringing this idea to my attention.)  When the county is in need of every drop of revenue it can get, why has the transit system not exploring selling ads?  MARTA does this, why not Gwinnett?  I do not know how much money this would raise, but whatever it raises would be some decrease in the severity of the county budget cuts.

The fiscal situation that Gwinnett County faces is very serious.  No one said any of the paths that could be taken through the woods would be easy, but I must commend the commissioners for choosing the right path - reigning in the size and cost of government as opposed to siphoning even more dollars out of our pockets.  I would much rather be bickering over what to cut than a tax increase.

Citizens oppose spending cuts

As the Gwinnett County Commission prepares to "vote on $225 million in proposed cuts to the operating budget through 2014," some county residents are opposing proposed law enforcement funding cuts.  I would ask them, what else is the commission supposed to do?  While I have been very critical of this board, they did the right thing by refusing to raise property taxes.  Given that a nontrivial reason we are in this fiscal mess is that monument to government mismanagement, Gwinnett (Taxpayers) Stadium, I absolutely oppose a tax increase.  Had our commissioners kept Gwinnett County focused on the core, limited responsibilities of government, I would be more open to recognizing the need for, and possibly supporting, a tax increase.  However, the commissioners made some very poor decisions in building that unneeded baseball stadium and now they should have to make the hard decisions of finding places to cut spending.

While I do not want to see police funding cut in general, I would be more concerned about these cuts if I did not see police officers parked alongside Gwinnett roads running radar/laser speed detection equipment.  I understand the need for traffic enforcement, but why not redeploy these officers to fighting real crime and let them do traffic stops while engaged in their normal patrols?  I would note that if the cuts are used on Gwinnett's so-called "Quality of Life" unit, then the negative impact to enforcing important laws is lessened.  The Quality of Life unit spends a lot of taxpayer dollars fighting property rights rather than the crime that is all too common in Gwinnett.

Thus, while we may feel some pain in the cuts that are eventually made, they are much easier to swallow than a tax increase in the aftermath of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on the Government-funded Gwinnett Braves new baseball stadium.

Gwinnett police seek help in identifying body

A dismembered corpse was discovered along Woodward Mill Rd. near Buford Wednesday night.  The hands had been removed from the body which was decapitated.  Police are asking for help in identifying the body.  If you have any information, "call CrimeStoppers at 404-577-TIPS."

Church offers reward in murder of businessman

A week ago I blogged about the murder of Dekalb businessman Marc Stewart.  Mr. Stewart's church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, is offering a reward of $10,000 "for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the murder of Marc A. Stewart."  From the church's press release:

Stewart was a faithful member of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia and a well known DeKalb county record company executive. “We offer our deepest sympathy and support to Stewart’s family and pray that God will comfort their pain and sorrow during this time of deep grief,” says Bishop Eddie L. Long, senior pastor, New Birth Church. “We are hopeful that the reward offer will assist investigators in finding justice for the Stewart family and send a message to the community that the killing must stop.” Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Gwinnett County Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at (770) 513-5300 or call anonymously on the Gwinnett County Police Department’s tip line at (770) 513-5390. The public should not contact New Birth Church with information about the investigation.

I would also add that, if you have information, please do not contact the Buzz either.  (I only note this because I received a couple emails seeking help with residents' garbage bills last month.)

Playing catchup on Gwinnett news

Fortunately, my day job has returned to normal, so I hope to get caught up here at the Buzz in the coming days.  And this just after I had finally gotten caught up and cleared a backlog of stories!

In the interest of not falling behind on current events, here is a summary of Gwinnett from the last week and a half with some light commentary.  I have saved the bigger matters for separate posts I hope to have up by the weekend.

Another garbage meeting, same ole topics

Frankly, there is little to say here.  The top issues at the meeting held on Thursday, February 5 were hauler choice - makes perfect sense to me - and truck traffic - I still don't get this one.  The next meeting is tomorrow night, Thursday, February 12 at the George Pierce Community Center in Suwanee.  According to Gwinnett Views, the meeting starts at 6:30.

Gwinnett cities negotiate property tax level with county

Gwinnett cities are negotiating with the county on the level of county property tax their residents have to pay.  At issue is paying full the county tax rate even when some county services are duplicated by municipalities.  Police protection is specifically mentioned.  I think Commission Chairman Charles Bannister makes a valid point in saying, “Even where cities have a police force, you will find the county involved in varying levels with accident investigations, crime scene work, SWAT, the radio system or animal welfare.”  Even if cities agreed that county police would not conduct any law enforcement activities within their city limits, can you imagine the outcry the first time something of major significance happened and the county police did not respond?  Besides, who is going to actually deal with real crime with city police departments occupied with running their speed traps?  I could see a "discount" on county taxes for duplicated services that only occasionally call on similar services from the county but not complete elimination of this portion of the property tax.

Here is a better idea.  Why do we have so many municipalities?  These cities are quite obviously duplicating many services that the county already provides.  This places a greater burden on individuals and companies doing business in Gwinnett because they have to negotiate varying rules, processes and procedures between the various jurisdictions.  Also, look at the shenanigans going on with the Snellville City Council.  Why exactly does a few miles of GA 124 and US 78 need its own government, especially when half of their elected officials behave less maturely than members of the South Gwinnett High School student government?  If you ask me, rather than creating new cities in the state, the Georgia State Legislature should be setting minimum population requirements for municipalities in order to eliminate excessive, inefficient and unnecessary layers of government.

More than 900 Gwinnett inmates to be deported

Federal immigration officials flagged for deportation 915 foreign-born inmates at the Gwinnett County jail during a 26-day surge that ended on Thursday.

Of the inmates identified as being in the country illegally, 489 had a previous criminal history, said Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway.

This is the result of the targeted enforcement effort by the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  I am very supportive of Sheriff Conway's effort to get Gwinnett included in the 287(g) immigration enforcement program.  However, not everyone sees things in the same light.

Rev. Tracy Blagec, a spokesperson for Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), said she suspects many of the undocumented aliens in the Gwinnett jail committed only traffic violations.

“This is local enforcement trying to enforce something that should be corrected at the national level,” Blagec said.

Those who oppose enhanced immigration enforcement continue to use flimsy excuses for their opposition.  An examination of the list of offenses of those to be deported shows less than 300 of the approximately 900 deportees who stand accused of not having a driver's license, violation of a city or county ordinance, or other traffic violations.  That means that over two-thirds were jailed for more serious crimes.  (You could argue that not having a driver's license is potentially serious because these drivers likely do not have insurance and, in the event of an accident, would be more likely to flee.  Someone involved in an accident with these individuals would likely get stuck with the repair bill.)  Even if we ignored the fact that all of these individuals are here in the U.S. illegally, those who committed more serious violations should forfeit any claim to the benefits of living in America.  If you come to America but will not respect our laws, why should you be allowed to stay?

As for the local enforcement of immigration, Rev. Blagec has a point.  However, with the prospect of immigration enforcement being dealt with in an effective manner by the Obama administration, that leaves no one other than states or local governments to deal with a problem that is placing a large burden on their infrastructure.

Gwinnett agencies to get federal aid

This type of federal aid is hard to oppose.  I have long said that government has a role to help people temporarily when they are in dire straits and cannot help themselves.  Certainly, in the current economic climate, there are many people in this situation.  This type of aid is reasonable and humanitarian and is a far cry from so much of the Democrats' "porkulus" package which is little more than an effort to enlarge the federal government and make Americans increasingly dependent on government.  When they become more dependent on government for their ongoing, non-temporary needs, they become more dependent on the liberal politicians who provide it.

Commission backs Springbrook golf course loan application

The County Commision voted 4-1 to back a loan application by the operators of the Springbrook golf course.  The dissenting vote was by Mike Beaudreau.  I can see arguments on both sides of this one.  I can see how supporting this $250,000 loan keeps alive the possibility that the Springbrook Golf Commission will eventually be able to pay back the entire $3.3 million dollars still owed to Gwinnett County as well as possibly avoiding county liability for an additional $1.7 million.  However, I wonder if this is not throwing good money after bad, especially for a non-critical recreational entity in a weak economy that has already shown an inability to pay its debts.

Commission approves Norcross waste transfer station

In a bit of a surprising move, the Gwinnett County Commission approved a waste transfer station in Norcross next door to a Catholic church.  I have to admit, I have never known for sure where I stand on this one and I would have a hard time criticizing a vote in either direction.  Hopefully, the restrictions on the project will ensure that the property rights of the church are not violated.  Unfortunately, by the time that becomes apparent, it may be too late.  It sounds like we have not heard the last of this one.

Hero honored by Gwinnett police

In a day where our society makes heroes of athletes and guitar players, Shawn Taylor is a real hero.  The quick actions of Taylor may well have saved the life of Gwinnett police officer Jeff Smith.  Officer Smith was grappling with an armed robbery suspect along Sever Rd. on December 18.  As the perp was going for the officer's firearm, Taylor stopped his car, ran and tackled Ahmaad Jarvis.  Taylor was honored with a plaque and a $2,500 check in a ceremony yesterday.  

Our society needs more Shawn Taylors.

(The perp, after being tackled, ran away and was later captured in a nearby house.  I suspect this is the same incident about which I blogged on that day.)