Buffalo Grove police wrote more tickets for non-moving violations in 2015 than in previous years, a result of a legal process the village brought in-house, the police chief recently said.
But for violators who may have been cited for expired registration, having a muffler too loud or other reasons, tickets could be cheaper, and more of the revenue generated now will fund village operations under the new adjudication process.
Police Chief Steve Casstevens updated the Village Board earlier in May about the first year of the local adjudication court board members established in 2015, detailing savings in officers’ overtime costs and additional revenue.
His presentation, some board members said, solidified what they wanted to achieve when they approved the concept. But he also showed an increase in the volume of citations his staff wrote last year.
“Officers are more comfortable in writing that citation because they know it’s coming locally,” Casstevens said.
Department records show that Buffalo Grove officers wrote in 2012 more than 3,000 tickets that would have qualified for the village’s new local adjudication court. They wrote about 3,100 tickets in 2013 and 3,400 tickets in 2014. Police also wrote about $405,000 worth of citations in 2014, according to the department.
In 2015, Buffalo Grove police sent 3,800 citations into their new court. Despite issuing 400 more tickets than in 2014, officers hauled in only $380,000 in fines in 2015. That’s because the local adjudication system takes less money out of violators’ pockets, Casstevens told the board.
He later noted that a grant the department received in 2015 from the Illinois Department of Transportation to conduct seat-belt enforcement resulted in additional time for officers to write more tickets for the local adjudication court.
“Not that we’re looking to balance the budget on tickets,” he told the Pioneer Press. “It’s a benefit to the violator.”
A local adjudication ticket, Casstevens said, is less than the same fine for the same violation that goes into a county court. A non-moving traffic fine is around $75 if sent to Waukegan, but only $50 if it stays in Buffalo Grove under the new adjudication process, he said.
After the first year of the new method, the police department also saved about $20,000 in officer overtime costs since Buffalo Grove officers no longer made trips up to Waukegan for those citations. The new local process also means revenue generated from citations stays in Buffalo Grove rather than being split up and diverted to the counties and other agencies.
In 2014, the Village Board spent time discussing its presence in the Lake and Cook county systems, understanding all those tickets went into circuit courts along with about two-thirds of the revenue from the fine, plus tacked-on court fees. Casstevens said that both counties’ dockets tend to be swamped with cases from multiple cities, forcing those who wish to protest a citation to sit in a long line.
“You can almost wind up taking a full day off work to attend court because there’s such a backlog,” he said.
In cases that go through the counties, the municipality where the ticket comes from takes home about a third of the value of a fine, Casstevens said.
“There’s not that much return,” he said.
The board in early 2015 created its own local adjudication court for minor offenses. The local court in Buffalo Grove covers parking tickets, license and registration expirations and other non-moving violations, as well as offenses against other village ordinances, such as a minor in possession of alcohol. Hearing officer David Eterno determines if the violator is liable or not liable, and hands out fines to the ones who are liable.
After Cassteven’s presentation to the board in early May, Village President Beverly Sussman said board members are seeing cost savings under the new adjudication process.
“I’m very pleased with the savings we’re seeing,” Sussman said.
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