Armed with a judge's order and a decade of warnings that offering safe-driving classes for a fee instead of traffic tickets is illegal, a group of Minnesotans are suing to get their money back.
In a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday, nine plaintiffs are demanding that 36 cities and counties across the state return at least $2 million raised through the classes. The lawsuit comes as legislators take a closer look at revamping the laws to keep the diversion programs legal.
Attorney Erick Kaardal, representing the group, said the public doesn't understand how the state auditor, attorney general and the courts can tell law enforcement officials repeatedly that the diversion programs are illegal, yet the programs continue to be offered, typically by police and sheriff's departments. "Are they law enforcement officers or are they law-violating officers?" Kaardal asked. "What is the role of a police chief or a county sheriff if not to follow the law?"
The programs allow drivers to keep tickets off their records in exchange for paying to take a class ranging in price from $75 to $125. Between 2010 and 2012, the classes raised $1.6 million, according to a report by State Auditor Rebecca Otto.
Typically, a third of the fees generated from traffic tickets goes to the state to help fund the criminal justice system. Fees from the driving classes, however, are usually kept by the jurisdictions offering the classes.
Otto has warned over and over that such "off the books" alternatives are illegal. In January, District Judge James Fabian ordered the Wabasha County safe driving class to a halt after two county commissioners, also represented by Kaardal, sued. The commissioners alleged that law enforcement for years had flouted a state law that prohibits such classes. Fabian called the program "a continued and repeated trespass on the laws of the state of Minnesota."
In the two months since Fabian's ruling, 24 remaining cities and counties shuttered or suspended their safe driving classes. Twelve remain in operation, including the counties of Chippewa, Sibley, Chisago, Meeker and Wright, and the cities of Circle Pines, Buffalo, Clara City, Lexington, Coon Rapids, Centerville and Lino Lakes.
The programs are popular both with drivers, who can avoid a black mark on their record and possibly higher insurance premiums, as well as police and sheriffs, who use the money to supplement their departments' budgets.