Get tougher on city fines

It would be understandable if people in Fort Worth who pay their traffic and parking fines feel like “suckers” after the release of a report showing that the city has failed to collect fees on hundreds of thousands of cases totaling well over $132 million.

That’s a lot of money that should be in the city coffers. It’s not, because, among other things, there is a lack of adequate enforcement.

After hearing a report on municipal court collection revenues and the city auditor’s assessment of the system, some council members were obviously exasperated by what is still largely a manually operated process. Administrators hope it will improve after full implementation of a new computer system.

But new computer programs won’t solve the problem without a keen focus on ways to enforce the laws beyond the efforts of a contracted collection agency.

Councilman Jungus Jordan wondered if the city should not take a lesson from the North Texas Tollway Authority, which targeted its worst scofflaws and publicized a list of their names.

That might be a start, but the city needs more methods to get delinquents to pay their debts.

This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Get tougher on city fines."