Traffic scofflaws won't get any mercy in Palmer

Frontiersman editorial board

The Palmer police department has initiated a program that will allow it to garnish Alaska Permanent Fund dividends of people who have unpaid traffic citations in Palmer.

According to Officer Kelly Turney, who spoke at last Tuesday's Palmer City Council meeting about the new program, Palmer has an estimated $40,000 in uncollected traffic fines, and the traditional method of attempting to collect through issuing traffic warrants is not realistic or cost-effective for the department.

The city of Palmer and the police department could stand to recover tens of thousands of dollars for the negligible cost of a few man-hours on a computer each year. We believe this is a good course for the Palmer police department and the city to follow.

With budget cuts across all city, state and federal departments making headlines nearly every day, our government agencies need to continually seek innovative ideas for increasing efficiencies and ensure that monies owed to them are collected within a reasonable amount of time.

Deadbeat citation holders should be shown little sympathy and not be allowed to escape their obligations, and garnishing dividends sends a strong message to those who believe they can continue to dodge their responsibility.

The recovered revenue could certainly be used for extra DUI and traffic patrols, further increasing the safety of our community, especially if the Wasilla police department and Alaska State Troopers follow Palmer's lead.

Increased patrols to catch or, better yet, prevent red-light and stop-sign runners, speeders, tailgaters and those driving under the influence will surely reduce the number of accidents we see around the community and read about in the

Police Beat.

Those who continually refuse to obey the safety laws and consistently put innocent people at risk with their reckless behavior should help shoulder the burden of funding the agencies charged with protecting our well-being.

We applaud the Palmer police department for taking advantage of this program and urge them to put the newfound revenue stream to proper use. We also encourage the city of Wasilla and Alaska State Troopers to expedite the process of participating in this program so they, too, can start recouping some of their

lost money.