RENO - While the recession continues, many local organizations are looking for ways to supplement their income, and there's an ugly rumor going around.

Many of our local residents are complaining that there have been a lot of traffic tickets issued in our area lately, and some wonder if our local police may be ticketing for profit.

On the national scale, there is a study that was done by the Federal Rserve Bank of Saint Louis. It shows that more traffic tickets are issued in the year following an economic downturn. The results suggest that tickets are used to make money, rather than just increase public safety. We asked our local police whether that perception is true here.

Sergeant Pat Dyer supervises the traffic division for Sparks PD. He says the number of traffic tickets issued in Sparks has nothing to do with making money for the city, but everything to do with keeping the streets safe.

"Our job is to enforce traffic laws. The laws weren't written by the police department. The were pushed through by the public and elected officials. It's a danger to the community when people speed, run stop signs, run red lights," said Dyer.

Dyer doesn't yet have statistics for the number of tickets issued in 2008, but says he guesses they'll be very similar to the 2007 numbers.

Business at Reno Justice Court tells a different story. The Chief Citation Clerk says she's seen a major increase in ticket payments in the past few months. Her office only deals with tickets issued in the County. That includes both Highway Patrol and the Sheriff's office.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, there were 5,156 tickets issued. For the same period in 2008, there were more than 7,600 issued. That's a nearly 2500 ticket increase.

For November of '07, there were 1,491 citations issued. In '08, that number jumped by more than a thousand, to 2,567.

From December 2007 to December 2008, the ticket numbers increased by about 600, from 1,524 to 2,125.

While there is controversy about when the recession officially began, the National Bureau of Economic Research says it was in December of 2007. Locals out paying their traffic tickets say it's just a little too convenient.

"It's ridiculous because of the economy. These cops are here to serve and protect. It's like, 'yeah right.' I'm here to serve you and get your money," said Mynor Morales of Reno.

"I think it's good. I'm glad it's going toward something," said Joe Concialidi of Sparks.

"I can't say I blame them to be honest with you," said Tommy Floyd of Reno.

But representatives from all local police agencies insist, there is no correlation between traffic tickets and the economy. They say other factors like holidays, special events, and even officer vacations may contribute. And Sergeant Dyer even has his own statistics to show that pulling people over, really is making a difference.

"We had 13 fatal traffic accidents in 2007. Due to our focus on high accident locations in 2008, we were able to drop that number to 3," said Dyer.

The citation clerk at Reno Justice Court says the average fee she sees in her office is around $190.00. If there are a number of violations on the ticket, it could be even more than that.

She couldn't estimate exactly how much money total is going back into our local cities and counties. But she did say that the revenue that comes in from the citations goes back to the location of the agency that issued it.

Sergeant Dyer from Sparks PD says he doesn't think the police department really sees much of that money at all, but that the majority of it is used to pay court and administrative fees.

Here's a link to the national study about police ticketing more during bad economic times:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2006/2006-048.pdf

Monthly calculations for tickets issued by NHP and Sheriff's Departments:

2007
June 1,828
July 1,891
August 2,375
Sept. 2,085
Oct. 2,141
Nov. 1,491
Dec. 1,524

2008
June 1,720
July 2,169
August 1,435
September 1,769
October 2,979
Nov. 2,567
Dec. 2,125

2007
1st quarter 5,175
2nd quarter 5,637
3rd quarter 6,351
4th quarter 5,156

2008
1st quarter 5,549
2nd quarter 5,486
3rd quarter 5,373
4th quarter 7,671

Sparks yearly calculations:

2006
7,091

2007
6,337

2008 (only up to August)
4,679

Reno calculations were not made readily available.