Report Shows D.C. Made $83M in Traffic Tickets Last Year

“The District of Columbia issued more tickets and citations each year than the state of Maryland and the state of Virginia,” said John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Manager of Public and Government Affairs.

The Office of the Inspector General has revealed that the District of Columbia issued 2.8 million traffic tickets in the fiscal year of 2013, raking in about $83 million.

Automated traffic enforcement system tickets brought in $90 million in revenue in FY13, which began Oct. 1, 2012 and ended Sept. 30, 2013, the auto club reported.

In total there were:

• 1,731,861 parking tickets
• 581,951 speed camera tickets
• 84,300 red-light camera tickets
• 79,600 non-automated moving violation tickets

Traffic control officers wrote an additional 316,687 traffic citations and the Metropolitan Police Department handed out 44,489 parking tickets in FY13.

“Even more striking, the District of Columbia government also raked in nearly $200 million in ticket fines,” Townsend said.

The District’s total revenue for parking, non-automated moving violation, and ATE tickets in FY13 was $182,393,529. In FY12 the total revenue was $182,477,422 and in FY11 it was $151,467,362.

There are 31 federal and District agencies that write tickets in Washington, however, there are three that issue the majority of them: The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the District Department of Public Works (DPW), and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).

“In calendar year 2012, these three agencies accounted for approximately 98 percent of the parking and ATE/moving violation tickets issued in the District: DPW (51 percent), MPD (38 percent), and DDOT (9 percent),” the Office of the Inspector General noted.

Photo Credit: DMV