Louisiana’s attorney general and a state senator have urged residents not to pay tickets issued by a constable in West Baton Rouge Parish, arguing that they were an illegally issued “money grab.”
Ward 2Constable Ron Tetzel allegedly issued thousands of tickets to the parish’s residents unfairly, according to Unfiltered With Kiran (UWK). State Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter brought the issue to light and referred to the scheme as a blatant abuse of authority.
During a phone interview with UWK, Kleinpeter explained that he started investigating the matter after receiving a slew of complaints from his constituents. “This is nothing but a money grab,” he said. “Nothing was being accomplished by this, like if you had an impaired driver or a kid unrestrained. [The officers] couldn’t have done anything because they didn’t have a vehicle. They were out there on foot, hiding behind signs,” the lawmaker said.
Tetzel issued the speeding tickets near Lukeville Elementary School using a handheld radar gun and later mailed the citations to drivers in violations of Louisiana’s Act 103, according to the report.
The law says local authorities may only use these devices in school zones during designated hours on school days. Moreover, cooperative agreements must be formed between school boards and municipalities to share revenue from the tickets. Yet, no such agreement existed in this case, according to Kleinpeter. “They were told if you operate within the parameters of the statute then you can clearly do it, and they weren’t,” he told UWK.
The constable concealed himself on foot behind signs and metal boxes and issued the tickets during prohibited times, such as weekends, holidays, and school breaks. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murril told Tetzel to stop these operations, but he resumed them two weeks after the warning. Additionally, the citations did not have a legitimate appeals process.
Kleinpeter recounted a conversation with Tetzel, who told him the appeals would take place in a storage facility. “I said, ‘You’re going to use a criminal offense to impose a civil fine, but I’m not going to be able to appeal it in an actual criminal court?’” the lawmaker said.
West Baton Rouge Superintendent Chandler Smith confirmed that there was no agreement allowing Tetzel to issue the citations, according to WBRZ’s Investigative Unit. “At the beginning of the school year, Tetzel reached out about enforcing the speed limits in school zones. He said he would install two cameras on poles and that the school system would get 10 percent of each $150 citation. No agreement was made with the school board,” he said.
The citations generated a possible revenue of up to $300,000 for the constable’s office and the Justice of the Peace. Kleinpeter claimed the whole scheme was unnecessary. “They have gates around their whole school now. They have a service road that will still have the school zone sign on the service road. There’s no reason to have a school zone [on the highway] and even try to enforce it.”
“I’m a huge supporter of law enforcement,” Kleinpeter told UWK. “But this isn’t about safety—it’s about money.”
