The fines would not necessarely go into general funds...BTW, they already have RMA Cops, this just expands it some. There are also and have been RailRoad Cops. The RR's have always had their own police force. That's where the idea of private Authority cops comes from.
Fines for state violations have always gone into general funds. The State Police tickets go into a literary fund I think....anyway,
fines for local infractions (Muni), go ito the locality's pocket.
What the localities have done is just copy the state traffic code and vote it in as a local offense. They keep the cash.
Recently Ken Cuccinelli opined that the localities were within their rights to keep the fines from State Police tickets as well.
I doubt the Authority gets to keep any of the money but the locality sure is gonna make a grab for it.
I'd be curious to know if they fine money went to them or not, I always assumed that it would since they have their own police but I have no idea. I have been pulled over by an RMA cop, he was actually really cool and professional and also didn't give me a ticket. This happened on the RMA expressway right before you enter Chesterfield on Powhite Parkway, they have a seperated EZ-Pass only section, but the speed limit drops down to 45... People either ignore this speed limit, or assume that it goes back to 55 right after the toll, when in fact it doesn't until the end of the RMA section. When I first took this road a few years ago, I wouldn't slow down at all going through the toll (like the majority of traffic around me) and I got pulled over once going in the other direction going 65 by a State Trooper, and he gave me a ticket but "cut me a break" by not writing it as reckless. I'm pretty convinced that this speed limit is imposed entirely as a way to generate fine revenue as it is separate from the actual tollbooths where people work, and other areas with the same setup have no change in speed (Pocahontas Parkway), and some with speed limits higher than 55.
I take this road in each direction at least once a day, and frequently see Richmond, RMA, and State Police sitting there looking for speeders, on a number of days I've seen major speed traps setup by Richmond/State Police (always around the same time of the month...) where they have quite a few officers out there pulling people over.
I also have seen an unusual checkpoint on Powhite, they had all lanes but one blocked off and weren't stopping people, but where slowing them down by having the lanes blocked and standing in the road and basically directing traffic through. I went around the checkpoint by taking an exit and hopping right back on and they didn't pull me over for it, but gave me a dirty look when I got off the exit making me think it wasn't an official checkpoint just a "we saw you driving with expired tags and pulled you over" kinda thing since nobody was getting stopped.
I don't really ever speed now, I'm a good boy. I've never once been pulled over since I started carrying. I do feel like having more police officers under a separate force would be bad in that it just creates more confusion in my opinion. Why not just have a Richmond and Henrico patrol/unit dedicated to their areas?
