MILWAUKEE — Several Milwaukee County municipalities are taking advantage of a new state law to significantly increase the cost that comes with reckless driving tickets.
TMJ4 News found those fines can vary by nearly $500 from one city to the next.
As an Uber driver, Chris Johnson sees reckless driving far more than most.
"Almost constantly,” he said.
He’s fed up with the behavior that puts lives at risk.
"As a whole, it's not just Milwaukee that's got a problem with this,” Johnson said. “It spills over into all the other communities.”
A new law allows municipalities to raise reckless driving fines. Six cities have already done so.
A first-offense reckless driving ticket in half a dozen Milwaukee County municipalities now costs nearly $800. Half of that is for surcharges like court and driver improvement fees that are added to the total.
"I think we could look at raising it up,” said Glendale Police Chief Mark Ferguson.
Glendale is one of nine municipalities where first-offense reckless driving fines are the lowest in the county at $313.
“If you cross the Whitefish Bay municipal line into Glendale, that’s a $485 difference. Does it make sense to have such a difference when it comes to reckless driving fines?” TMJ4 reporter Ben Jordan asked.
“No, it really doesn’t,” Chief Ferguson replied. “It should be uniform all the way across I would think."
Chief Ferguson thinks the consequence should be consistent no matter where a reckless driver is caught.
“Should it be uniform on the high end or the low end?” Jordan asked.
"I think it would make sense to make it uniform on the high end,” Chief Ferguson replied.
Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy tells TMJ4 the city’s citation fees are re-evaluated each fall and he expects their reckless driving fine to increase at that time.
While Chief Ferguson says traffic tickets are intended to correct the behavior, he knows that only works for those who accept the punishment and pay their ticket.
“Some of the people that I think are driving recklessly, I don't think they really care about citations or fines so I'm not sure how much that would help,” Chief Ferguson said.
Johnson thinks it isn’t just the cost of fines that needs to increase, but also the amount of tickets being issued.
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