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Motorists Detained for Paying Toll with Large Bills

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… like $20, according to this story.

Now the story brings up interesting issues of profiling, and whether toll station workers were legally permitted to detain anyone. I think those are good questions. The Florida DOT’s coverup should also be investigated.

But here’s something that got me:

Although FDOT refused to comment because the Department expects to be sued, internal e-mail justify the program because of counterfeit bills. However, in a 2 and a half year period the DOT got $16,000 in counterfeit bills, while at the same time it collected close to $2 billion in tolls ($1,523,825,404).

The Department also spent $32,000 on forms used to catch the $16,000 in funny money. The department also says in e-mails, the program will help law enforcement catch counterfeiters.

Irrespective of all the very valid legal issues, as a businessman, I would say this should raise red flags. A program that spends $32,000 to prevent $16,000 in losses is not very profitable. Of course, it will be less profitable if FDOT loses the lawsuit.

 

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Comments

2 responses to “Motorists Detained for Paying Toll with Large Bills”

  1. Jeremy Pierce Avatar
    Jeremy Pierce

    Profit isn’t the only reason a government has to enforce laws. Counterfeiting money is a crime. We spend lots of money on catching and prosecuting criminals that doesn’t turn out to profit the government. I’m not sure why this should be any different. So I don’t find the profit argument to be all that strong as a reason to think Florida is doing something bad here.

    Reply
    1. Henry Neufeld Avatar
      Henry Neufeld

      Profit isn’t the only reason a government has to enforce laws.

      True, but effectiveness in actually preventing the commission of a crime is a measure of law enforcement. I would suggest that all law enforcement needs to be examined from a cost-benefit point of view to determine what we are getting for our money.

      I’d suggest drug enforcement as a prime target. Personally, I don’t even drink alcohol or smoke, much less use other drugs. I would like to see much less drug use. But we spend large amounts of money on the drug war, and get very little in the way of results.

      So I would suggest that we need to look very carefully at the profitability of our methods of enforcing laws.

      (Hmm! Second time in as many days that I’ve written a comment to a post that is much longer than the original post itself. Where’s the profit in that? :-))

      Reply

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