This Tiny Town Near St. Louis Is Making Minor-Crime Arrests At 100 Times The National Average

ST. LOUIS -- A study of policing in the St. Louis area released Monday, which criticized the profit-driven practices of many departments in St. Louis County, revealed a startling statistic about arrests for minor crimes made in one tiny municipality.

Beverly Hills, Missouri, population 574, has taken in over a quarter of its revenue from court fees and fines in recent years, at an annual rate of nearly $400 per resident. Its police department patrols Beverly Hills as well as nearby Velda Village Hills, a combined area totaling less than a quarter of a square mile.

Between 2010 and 2014, Beverly Hills made an average of 1,087 arrests per 1,000 residents for less serious offenses, meaning they arrested more people for such offenses each year than actually lived in the jurisdiction they patrolled, according to the new report from the Police Executive Research Forum. That's "more than 100 times the national rate of arrests" for such offenses, according to the report.

Other St. Louis County cities -- including Edmundson, Moline Acres, Pine Lawn, Calverton Park and Pagedale -- made more than 10 times as many arrests for less serious offenses as they did for more serious crimes, according to the report. Nationally, police make an average of less than two arrests for minor offenses for every one arrest for a serious crime, the report stated.

www.huffingtonpost.com...
What can I say that haven't been said before, pls klik to view the vid.
Truth be told these people have the patience of Job, I know I am not built that way.

Daaamn, there must be 100 times the average amount of scumbags... in their city hall and police dept!

I am not an expert in policing, so, I dunno, I guess just take this with a grain of salt... but I would prefer they focused more on the mid and especially upper level crimes like rape, murder, human trafficking, rather than focus on the minor crimes. It would help them justify more funding. But I guess funding isn't the same as "revenue".

a reply to: Spider879

I assume that some people have never heard of a "speed trap" community that has little source of revenue outside of traffic tickets? I didn't see the words "traffic violations" in the article. Was that because the writer of the article wanted to make a rather unjust picture of that community in regard to the balance of serious crimes committed and minor crimes?

Several years ago a small community, Schurtz, straddling I-35 on the northern edge of San Antonio, Texas, had a notorious reputation for ticketing anybody that violated their lowered speed limit by a mere tmph as they came through on I-35. So, that was a nasty thing to do to raise revenues, but they were not breaking the law, merely in their eyes, enforcing it. They got a lot of bad press and eventually changed their MO. At any rate, that is common practices for small incorporated areas along well-traveled roadways, and that is probably what happened in this area near St. Louis, Mo. Let's not slant the story so that it has an entirely different meaning however.

a reply to: Aliensun


Golden Meadows, Louisiana. Maybe five miles long on the four lane down to Grand Isle. Let your speedometer go above over 35 and you'll get a ticket. Speed traps are all over. Yes they suck, but they do exist. To some towns they are necessary though. Don't want to pay a ticket though then don't break the law. You're a fool if you even got two miles above posted speed limit in a known speed trap so you deserve that ticket. Its not like they're secrets in what town to make sure you buckle up in and do posted speed limit.

a reply to: Aliensun

How dare you bring logic and sound reasoning to this site?

I don't know? I got this bad habit when I read a article. That bad habit is I tend to do that research and see whether it's correct instead of take the article at face value.

That was a great comment, I was right online with you in your thinking. It appears that town is America's worst nightmare. It's a small town with a speed trap camera.

This intersection is known for its photo enforcement. My advice is to do what I did. Ignore every and all tickets issued by camera enforcement and drive the speed the limit not getting pulled over in Beverly Hills. I received ticket over a year ago and no action has been taken. Just BS threatening letters by these punks. They can't do squat.

And with replies like that, it makes perfect sense that arrest are high.


speed traps

Nothing new, in fact it's common for small municipalities. I guess it's either them trying to overcompensate for there "small force" or.... They need to earn enough revenue to justify there existence. Perhaps a lil of both.

There's a town near me that if you sneeze while driving you may miss it but very notorious for traffic situations. Nabbed there a few times myself for trivial things. I was at a red light behind another car, light turns green and a cop pulls me over for speeding. I couldn't even get it out of third gear because a car was in front of me.

It is obvious they need cash to run their cities and towns..but this bit about not raising taxes is BS if they don't want to raise taxes then legalize weed, I said so before in another thread it has done wonders for Colorado so much so that they were toying with the idea of giving back tax rebates to it's citizens, you have a situation where the poor and the powerless in predominately Black enclave but not exclusively black are prayed upon, these are the kind of things that build frustrations and eventually burst into violent riots, many here will only look at the aftermath and not see what's really drove people to do very destructive things, but they became the animals the thugs, who need to be crushed with the might of the state for disturbing the peace and perhaps the conscience.
I am sorry but I have never lived like that and no I haven't lived a sheltered life, I can imagine my self getting killed for not conforming to that bulls!!t.

a reply to: Spider879
Injustice and abuse lead to riots. Not speed traps, which are neither. Did you really try and turn this thread that way? You turn this to race and riots as well as say you could be some type of martyr. Dramatic and delusions of grandeur much? Shame on you OP. I'll see myself out your thread.

a reply to: Greathouse

For my county in Tx, you can't renew your registration unless you pay the ticket.

originally posted by: Passive
a reply to: Spider879
Injustice and abuse lead to riots. Not speed traps, which are neither. Did you really try and turn this thread that way? You turn this to race and riots as well as say you could be some type of martyr. Dramatic and delusions of grandeur much? Shame on you OP. I'll see myself out your thread.

www.huffingtonpost.com...
Goto the link and klik the vid pls.

a reply to: Spider879

So?


I grew in a little bitty area right between Ferguson,Moline Acres,and Dellwood there. It was unincorporated North St.Louis County.It has always been that way. Let me talk a tiny bit about when I was a teenager.....

As teens hanging out(not really getting into trouble,just hanging around with nothing to do),we knew from experience what areas were 'cool' to hang at and which ones weren't. The reason some areas weren't cool? The cops. They would come along and run you off or worse run checks on you to see if they could throw you in jail and make more money.

I was with a bf that had JUST bought a used car that evening.Now where was he gonna get it licensed at 8 pm? He had all his paperwork in order and explained to the cop(Riverview if I remember) that he had just now picked up the car and was driving it home,until the licensing office opened tomorrow. Cop told him, "I don't care,it has no plates and I'm writing you tickets." Anything to hassle teenagers. They were totally crappy to teens there.

I know another bf that got a bunch of lip because his motorcycle caught fire on the street on him,barely got off it in time to avoid injury,cop looks at him and tells him, "its your own fault". WTF!!! He just bought it and had no idea it had a leak in the gas tank. So how was this his fault? He was taking it around and testing it to see how well it would do.

I could go on and on about all the run ins I had or my friends had with the police in those small towns. I almost came to blows with one cop when I was 19. The female cop he was with,just shrugged and said "I don't know whats up with him",(meaning the other cop).

This does not in any way prove that its a black only thing. They did it to us when it was an all white neighborhood. Thats just the way they are there.

a reply to: Dimithae

I did not say it was a Black only thing but the problem is very acute in poor black communities. add to the fact of stop n frisk the mistrust of LOE in those communities the problem is multi fold race ,poverty and perception if you are traveling through that community and is Black you are more likely to be perceived as poor and thus powerless hence you will be targeted first, note I said Poor Black communities, in middle class or rich Black communities it's hardly a problem as those folks more than likely have a lawyer on their speed dial and LOE in that area knows that.
Poor and white there maybe room for doubt as one never knows if that person is poor or not, but again if you haven't done so go to the link above and view the vid you may get a better understanding of the social dynamic at play here.
The fact that you guys were kids also made for ripe targets,as they generally do not know how to negotiate their way out of a confrontation with LOE .

a reply to: Spider879

Pip squeak piss ant department wants more funds to be relavent. Pisses me off that they get away with this crap. I hope this article raises the locals to speak up and stop this bs.

a reply to: Spider879

Tiny Town Near St. Louis Is Making Minor-Crime Arrests At 100 Times The National Average.
Well, now the police are looting the citzens for money for the town adminstration who are going to do what with it?

next step is to loot their houses for whatever they can find I spose.

originally posted by: Azureblue
a reply to: Spider879

Tiny Town Near St. Louis Is Making Minor-Crime Arrests At 100 Times The National Average.
Well, now the police are looting the citzens for money for the town adminstration who are going to do what with it?

next step is to loot their houses for whatever they can find I spose.

I get that gov need money, I really do, but there is legal tried and tested stealing long set in place, it is called leveling taxes it is less obnoxious than simply robbing the very poor and dumping them in jail if they can't which is a money maker for the court system and for profit prisons, this in turn criminalizes a community which in turn justifies more LOE who need more money so they steal from the poor and a vicious cycle continues and the predictable social ills that follows.

a reply to: Spider879
This is common in the areas listed, and has been going on for decades. It's just gotten worse in the past several years. Not surprising, considering the in your face corruption of government and law enforcement in those townships.

a reply to: Spider879

Poor and white get it too. My neighborhood was made up of lower working class families.The one guy on the back street was ALWAYS in trouble with the law. When he was in his early 20s he saw a party going on at a friends house and walked over to see what was going on. Just as he got there the police pulled up. The stopped him,frisked him,he told them he had just got there and had no idea of what was happening. The one cop told him, "we know you aren't involved in this dude,we saw you walk up here just now". They told him as standard procedure they had to cuff him while searching him. As soon as they had the cuffs on him,the one cop picked him up by his beard,(he weighed 180 lbs). He finally freaked out from the pain and brought the cuffs up in the cop's face knocking out the cop. The other police jumped on him,beating him so bad,they fractured his eye socket knocking his eye out. Plus breaking his ribs and arm. This is how things work there.

So what was going on at the house that night? A group of guys had decided to do the smart thing and break into the corner meat market and steal a bunch of meat,beer and other food and have a party! They were a real smart group. Where the one guy that got beat up,had nothing to do with this and the police knew this. It was an excuse to finally 'pay him back' for all the times his lawyer got him off of things he did. This is more a small town thing,than anything else. It doesn't matter where that small town is,city limits or out in the country. The police and justice dept. are iffy at best there.

a reply to: Spider879

You know normally people don't pay attention to things like local sheriff elections, but I'm sure the people in that town will be paying attention come election time.

a reply to: Passive

Linndale, Ohio was also notorious for the same practice. A tiny portion of I-71 bisects the town and they made a fortune ticketing motorists.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I have never seen a sheriff election there. They commanding officers and such,but not sheriffs.
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