This project is the result of a Pennsylvania Right-to-Know request filed with the Philadelphia Traffic Court. Data included shows every traffic violation in the city issued since 2006. This project is the primary publication of this data, although we encourage this data to be republished elsewhere. This project also endeavors to analyze the data and consider if there is any evidence of ticket-fixing, wrongdoing, or other injustice.
Philadelphia Traffic Court made national headlines throughout 2014 as its offices were raided by the FBI and 9 current and former judges face indictments[1] on 77 counts. The behavior at issue is ticket-fixing, where a favorable ruling is traded to judges for payment or other consideration. As a result, the Pennsylvania state legislature voted to dissolve[2] the court.
Over one million court cases are included in the data set.
| Year | Citations |
|---|---|
| 2006 | 116,227 |
| 2007 | 106,834 |
| 2008 | 114,647 |
| 2009 | 98,057 |
| 2010 | 84,088 |
| 2011 | 108,098 |
| 2012 | 166,805 |
| 2013 | 155,208 |
| 2014 (incomplete) | 74,333 |
The original file was provided to me by CD-ROM on December 18, 2014. It was a single Excel XLSX file172,875,037 bytes with SHA-256 hash 515ccf0aebe60a8319b0ef9c2392204a43da71aa5f14913eaf49051c98dc4c4e. Because this file is cumbersome (e.g. LibreOffice is unable to open it) I have sliced it into separate tab-separated-value files using IBM's SPSS software. No other modifications have been made. For consideration to people "cloning" this project, the original file is not included in this repository but is available by request.
First, please star this project to get updates. Then get active by using Wikis on the right to introduce yourself as a potential collaborator and Issues to recommend tasks and analysis we can complete.
- [1] http://pmconline.org/files/t_Court_Jan_30_2013_Traffic_Court_Indictment.pdf
- [2] http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/billinfo.cfm?syear=2013&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=334
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnDdJ3Yxs-E Philadelphia's newest shady elected officals
- http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/06/19/with-gov-corbetts-signature-philadelphia-traffic-court-is-out-of-business/
- http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/tag/philadelphia-traffic-court/
- http://www.fbi.gov/philadelphia/press-releases/2013/philadelphia-traffic-court-judges-indicted-for-fraud
- http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-28/news/46690561_1_william-hird-philly-traffic-court-ex-traffic-court
- http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-29/news/46740469_1_william-hird-judge-fortunato-perri-sr-philadelphia-traffic-court
- http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-29/news/46740407_1_philly-traffic-court-robert-moy-robert-mulgrew
- http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Indicted-Traffic-Court-judges-seek-dismissal-of-charges.html
- http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Indicted-Traffic-Court-judges-seek-dismissal-of-charges.html#FKWd7He8d7mK0KtU.99
- F. M, J. M. The Philadelphia Traffic Court. University of Pennsylvania Law Review. 1961;109(6):848-.