Court Administrator Linda Lovelace said revenues have declined this year due to pandemic. She said they have had to dig into reserves as a result.
“Just like everybody else our revenue streams has decreased, in particular during the shutdown...,” she said. “We don’t see the traffic citations that we once were. Alcohol sales are going up, people are drinking at home and so they’re not out on the highways getting OVIs, so it’s a lot safer driving on our highways now.”
The Area Courts handle misdemeanor criminal, traffic violations and some civil cases for the unincorporated areas of the county. They have locations in Hamilton, Oxford and West Chester Twp.
Court Clerk Debbie Bolser said she budgeted $525,000 in revenues generated from various court fines, fees and other sources for this year. So far this year they have collected $350,880 compared to $471,764 a year ago. Total collections for 2019 were $546,666.
The Butler County Sheriff’s Department patrols the bulk of the county’s unincorporated area and Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer said it wasn’t just that fewer people were on the roads.
“When the COVID came in there was a reduced traffic pattern and a reduced traffic enforcement that did occur,” Dwyer said. “Obviously people were quarantined in and they weren’t moving, less traffic, less involvement. And then our officers I think instinctively reduced enforcement based on contact, the risk/reward was not that great for minor violations.”
He said they fully supported their deputies being cautious but told them they couldn’t ignore flagrant violations, “blatant stuff still gets you a ticket.”
Part of the safety concerns on the part of the deputies is they are usually not masked while patrolling. He said they have had a few complaints about the issue.
“We encourage them with interaction (to mask up) but law enforcement is exempt from that while doing their job because of peripheral vision...,” Dwyer said. “You can’t have a mask when you’re wrestling with somebody. When you know you’re going into adversarial contact it’s not prudent to have something around your face that somebody can grab and choke you with.”
West Chester Twp. Police Chief Joel Herzog said he concurs, in August citations were down 49% and year-to-date they are down 41%. Warnings were down 58% in August and 48% year-to-date.
While the county has been on the coronavirus “rollercoaster” going from orange on the governor’s threat map to red and back again, he issued specific orders.
“So I’ve directed them if you have you have an equipment violation that’s a non-safety issue don’t make that traffic stop, don’t make that contact, avoid those kind of things," Herzog said. "If it’s safety violation, speed would be a safety violation, a failure to yield in front of somebody, a stop sign or a red light, by all means be making those kind of stops.”
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