Madison City Council officials have proposed a change that will raise fines for alcohol related offenses.
The purpose behind the increases is to offset the cost of overtime pay for police officers during Madison’s annual Halloween festivities.
Fines to be increased include disorderly conduct, noise violation, public urination, throwing projectiles and dispensing alcohol without a license. Noise violation, being the smallest increase, would go from $102 to $164. Disorderly conduct would be increased from $164 to $412 and dispensing alcohol without a license would go from $350 to $660.
| The Issue A proposed increase in fines to offset police officer overtime costs during Madison’s Halloween weekend. |
According to data from last year’s Halloween weekend, the increased fines would completely cover the overtime expenditures, in turn, preventing the burden from being delegated to Madison taxpayers.
The proposal makes perfect sense. The people necessitating a police presence deserve to be the ones paying for it. There is a saying that goes, “don’t let one person ruin it for the whole group.” Increased fines ensure that they won’t.
Students who have been in Madison for Halloween weekend know that you have to do something pretty outrageous to merit the attention of a police officer. The exorbitant number of inebriated college students makes it impossible for police officers to ticket every student that stumbles by in a drunken stupor.
Don’t let the increased fines scare you away from a weekend trip to Madison this Halloween. It is here, among the riots and other acts of stupidity that inevitably occur, that police officers are as close to being your friend as they can be.
