Traffic Laws
Enforcement of traffic laws has been one of the major causes of trouble for the people of Courtelaney Pass. The intersection cameras violets people’s constitutional rights but the police chief insist on maintaining them for the purpose of collecting revenues. Unnecessary high amount of revenue is collected from fines assessed from traffic infractions recorded by the cameras. There is also the selective enforcement of the law; the Blacks are ticketed twice as much as whites for intersection violations. Eighty-seven percent of blacks and passerby vehicles receive the majority of these vehicular infractions. The second is Ticket quotas- Every police officer was required to offer at least 12 citations per shift and 87% of those issued with the tickets were blacks and out of town travelers. This is a problem because it offers a ground for the officers to fine people unnecessarily in order to reach the target. The third issue is hiring biases. The police chief only considers hiring white people which makes the department 94% white. The few people from the minority being hired are working only on the non-sworn support roles. The police department lacks any representation from the minority. The forth issue is the excessive and unnecessary use of force on residents particularly on the young black males. One such incident caused the death of one of known drug dealer which cause minority unrest in the municipality. Such incidences further push the public away from the police creating bad blood between the police and the public. On the part, controlling crime as well as serving the people becomes difficult. The fifth issue is excessive violence in the municipality. Courtelaney Pass’s crime rate had soared by 35%. There are many cases of street drugs sold in the open air or driven up drug markets. This problem is difficult to control because the police chief only does crack-down on the minority regions where he believes there is a proliferation of the drugs. The Hispanic group is major targets for crime because most of them are undocumented and fear being reported if they report any crime to the police. Police negligence is another concern for the people living in this community. When Kyla’s mother reported her disappearance, the police downplayed her and stated that the young girl might have run away from home. If the police had responded to the mother’s pleas, then the young girl might have been found in time and alive. Failure for the police to prevent crime and lack of duty to care causes tension in the community which can make the people take the law into their own hands to protect themselves. This also leads to increased instances of crime. Civil unrest is also a problem. The derailed relationship between the police and the people from the minority group led to riots in the community. During such riots, many people are injured, and death can easily occur. Businesses get destroyed and looted which causes huge economic loss. As a result of disturbances, the security and the wider society and culture is also threatened.