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Engine exhaust is full of carcinogens. Given this, it is entirely fair to fine polluters in proportion to the level of harm they cause. Outsourcing the enforcem
by nwah1 8y ago
Engine exhaust is full of carcinogens. Given this, it is entirely fair to fine polluters in proportion to the level of harm they cause. Outsourcing the enforcement to citizens is a bit strange, but it is important work and someone should be paid to enforce the law.
- bunderbunder 8y agoOutsourcing the enforcement to citizens might be the only practical way to do it. According to the article, in about 18 months, his 25% cut of the fines amounted to roughly $5,000. Assuming you could hire city employees to do it, you'd probably want to cover their salaries with the fines. Let's say city's overhead from prosecuting these cases is 25% (Judges need to get paid, too), so that's $15,000 in 18 months, or $10,000 in 12, if they spend as much time at it as this guy. He's obviously motivated, and keeping an eye out whenever he's on the streets, so let's assume a full timer can only manage about 10x as much vigilant time as him. That's $100,000/yr. Assuming you want to cover both salary and benefits, that might not be enough in NYC. And, assuming the program were at all successful, then you'd expect revenues from it to drop rapidly as every commercial operator in the city starts warning their employees.
- bunderbunder 8y agoAnother thought: Citizen bounties like this might also be less likely to engender corruption.
- pavel_lishin 8y agoAre fines typically calculated to cover the cost of their enforcement? That smells weird to me.
- et2o 8y ago100k/year is definitely well above (~2x) the median salary for someone in public service in a job like this in NYC. Police officers in the NYPD start around 42k/year.
- icebraining 8y agoSalary is just one of the costs. There's pensions, equipment, training, etc.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago>Outsourcing the enforcement to citizens might be the only practical way to do it. Outsourcing law enforcement has its own negative externalities. Do you want to live in a society where you have to worry that any minor violation of law will be reported by whoever sees it? Sounds a lot like 1984 to me.
- ams6110 8y agoThe polluters would be the owners of the cars. So that idea will go nowhere.