How the DOJ Misused Ferguson Traffic Fine Information

The Department of Justice report on Ferguson uses a blend of statistics and anecdotes to build a narrative that the Ferguson Police Department, and by extension the Ferguson administration, acted in a racist manner.
 
One of the statistics pointed to as proof of “discriminatory intent” was Ferguson’s reliance on traffic fines as a portion of its annual budget.  The DOJ implies that the city administration decided to have the police target African-Americans for tickets as a way of increasing revenue. 
 
Ferguson Truth believes that the Department of Justice selectively included and excluded information to cast Ferguson in the worst light possible.  How the reliance on fines was presented in the DOJ report is an example – the information was presented without context, and the context matters. 
 
Most cities in the US include traffic fines as a budgeted revenue source.  This includes the cities in North St. Louis County.  An organization called Better Together did a study of the degree to which the budgets of each municipality in the St. Louis region were reliant on traffic fines.  Here is their worst offenders list.

It's worth pointing out that Ferguson is not on the list; Ferguson is relatively mild in comparison to many of the neighboring communities.  But more importantly the ranking shows that reliance on traffic fines was an accepted and growing strategy for all North County communities.  Where this gets very complicated is when we start looking at the racial composition of the different cities and city governments.  Some of these towns are majority African American population, some majority white, some have African American mayors, some white.  North County is by chance the most integrated part of St. Louis County, and so racial mix is all over the board.  A fair number of the cities that are most reliant on traffic fines have majority African-American population and an African-American mayor.  
 
By not providing this context, the DOJ was able to suggest that Ferguson’s reliance on traffic fines in its budget was more proof of racism.  It's far less compelling proof if you understand that most of the cities in North County are more dependent on traffic fines than Ferguson, and many of those cities have African American leadership and populations. 
 
We aren't trying to defend policing for profit, and are happy that the scrutiny is causing Ferguson and even the United States to pull back from this approach. We aren’t trying to suggest that racism isn't real or that Ferguson can't be an even better city. But change based on a lie won’t bring progress, and the Department of Justice has purposely presented an untruthful view of Ferguson.  No truth no justice.