Police chief shares concern over traffic tickets regarding new Missouri law

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Just weeks after a new Missouri law peeled back certain consequences linked to traffic violations, law enforcement is sounding the alarm.

“If we keep clawing back the accountability and we don't stand up and say right is right and wrong is wrong and if you do wrong there are consequences for those actions where do we go as a society,” Chief Adam Dustman of the Independence Police Department said.

Dustman is questioning the bill’s sponsor over the concern in regard to the recourse municipalities have when enforcing traffic tickets.

Because for most of us when we see those lights flashing behind us, flashing, no doubt there is some level of fear, what have I done?

That is the very essence of this conversation because that could be going away.

Part of Senate Bill 754 reads: "This act provides that no court shall issue a warrant of arrest for a person's failure to respond, pay the fine assessed, or appear in court with respect to a traffic violation issued for an infraction."

"Any mechanism that reduces the accountability of behavior in this case violations of the traffic law is not going to dissuade people from violating the law if anything it's going to incentivize them to continue to violate the law,” Dustman said.

The sponsor of this bill, Republican State Senator Tony Luetkemeyer, however, disagrees, saying the idea is that people should no longer go to jail for low-level crimes.

But Dustman has his thoughts as well.

"My concern is if these are people who should not be on the street and we're continuing to reduce the accountability of these offenders who have shown a propensity to violate the law, are we really keeping our streets safe?” Dustman asked the senator.

"What I would say to that is that municipal police departments are able to send cases that they can't handle and municipal courts to the county prosecutors,” Luetkemeyer responded.

"They're [county prosecutors] overloaded just like we’re overloaded, so to add more to their plate or to assume that more can be added to their plate… is fantasy in practice," Dustman said.

Now, there has been a push nationally, kind of what we're seeing here, to decriminalize traffic violations.

The Fines and Services Justice Center wrote a report titled "The Drive to Jail" that details some of what we see happening here in Missouri.

The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department responded to FOX4 in a statement saying:
“We have and will continue to enforce traffic laws across our city. Careless driving, speeding, seatbelt usage has led to far too many traffic fatalities in this city. Those will remain priorities for traffic enforcement.”

But again, even once they give those tickets, Dustman’s concern is that the recourse of putting a lien on someone, which is now the available recourse, is just not enough.