Ticket amnesty program sees small gain

By Andria Simmons

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A traffic ticket amnesty program offered by Gwinnett County Recorder's Court in March gave the county budget a little boost.

Fines sent to the general fund -- both from overdue tickets and those collected as part of normal business -- totaled $734,521. That's about $65,000 more than was taken in during February and $35,000 more than was received in January. However, last March when no ticket amnesty program was offered, the county took in $903,676.

Officials said amnesty program didn't bring in as much money as they had hoped, but it helped affirm their belief that the county was already doing its best to collect fines from offenders before the deadline for payment lapsed.

Recorder's Court also recalled 605 outstanding bench warrants that had been issued for failure to appear in court, more than any other month to date.

As part of the amnesty program, anyone with an outstanding traffic citation in Gwinnett was able to pay their fine without added penalties and have their bench warrant recalled.