Does the Local Agency Compensated Enforcement program encourage police departments to use speeding tickets to pay for their salaries?
The town of Washington owes state government $222,130 from speeding tickets issued by the municipality’s police officers on Interstate 49.
“I can’t make Washington pay it. But what I believe is he has to cut a check,” Daryl G. Purpera, the Louisiana legislative auditor, said Friday.
Washington Mayor Joseph A. Pitre told the Legislative Audit Advisory Council he did not believe the town owes the money.
State law requires fines collected by local law enforcement from motorists exceeding the speed limit by less than 10 miles per hour on an interstate highway to be turned over to the state Treasury. The law applies only to local governments without a home rule charter.
In the meantime, Murray said the audit found Washington police officers wrote tickets on an interstate highway and the fines were not properly turned over to state government.
Pitre said the money had been given to various agencies as part of a program called LACE or Local Agency Compensated Enforcement. The program is not found in state law but has grown up to help forge cooperation between various local government entities, according to an Attorney General’s opinion. The money is used to fund extra duty for off-duty police officers.
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