City has fine plan to pay for more traffic cops

13 August 2015 - 02:05 By Staff reporter

Cape Town plans to have 90 more traffic cops on the street by next June - and to make them self-funding by using them to boost revenue from traffic fines and impoundment fees. Money for 30 new officers was approved in May, and the latest adjustments budget includesR40-million for another 60.Of this, R26.7-million is for salaries, and mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said yesterday this amount would be covered by extra fine revenue of R19.6-million and extra impoundment fees of R7.1-million.The remaining R13.2-million will be used to kit out the new officers with vehicles, radios, firearms and office equipment.In the past two financial years, the City of Cape Town had raised its traffic fine income by more than R100-million.The new recruits will increase the uniformed strength of the city traffic service by almost 20% to 570."The public continually ask for more police and increased enforcement, but imagine if more residents took responsibility for their actions and obeyed the law," said Smith. "We would not need to invest such significant resources into enforcement."..

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