Not that we'd advocate skirting the long arm of the law or anything, but if you've got any open tickets with the city of Detroit's 36th District Court right now, it's a good time to show up at court.
If you get pulled over by one of the few remaining cops in Detroit, you have to report to 36th. And because revenues are down for the city, you might have to answer to at least two or three tickets the cops hand out to help offset budget shortfalls. The thing is, 36th District Court is a notorious clusterfuck with literally hundreds of people in court on any given day — not just for traffic, but everything from loitering in the park after hours to more serious stuff like drunk driving.
You'd think that with so many people driving uninsured, racking up driver's responsibility fees and other crimes the revenues from fines would just be stacking up, but because Wayne County is stuck in its own budget shortfall, it had to lay off some prosecutors that work in the court. And since prosecutors and other staff aren't showing up to work, traffic cases have to be dismissed, giving a bunch of drivers a lucky break.
Obviously that's great for drivers — some are reporting being let off the hook for upward of seven tickets — but it could be disastrous for top Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, once called the toughest woman in Detroit for her takedown of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and her pursuit of solving 11,000 unsolved rape cases, who may be pondering resignation because there aren't enough resources for her to do her job.