Study finds affluence factor in municipal court satisfaction

ST. LOUIS -- A new study suggests a community's affluence plays a role in determining a person's municipal court experience.

Saint Louis University conducted an exit poll of 753 people leaving courts in 13 St. Louis County municipalities, the results of which were released Tuesday.

The poll found both black and white residents had a far better experience in communities where the median income level was higher, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. However, black defendants generally had a worse experience than whites.

Municipal courts in the region have been under scrutiny since the unrest that followed the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. A U.S. Department of Justice report was critical of Ferguson's municipal court for making money largely on the backs of poor and black residents.

The polls were taken in towns ranging from Normandy, which is next to Ferguson and has a median income of $24,744, to Ladue, with a median income of $179,464. Ferguson was among the cities studied, ranking in the middle in terms of overall satisfaction but highest rated among the less affluent suburbs.

Municipal court defendants were asked to rate their experience on factors such as perceived courteousness of the judge and court officials, fairness of the resulting fine and treatment by police.

The study supports the theory treatment is worse in cash-strapped cities that, without a strong tax base, look elsewhere for revenue.

"What we found was that consistently, whether black or white ... the affluent communities see better ratings by far than the non-affluent communities," said Ken Warren, a political-science professor involved in the study. "This finding held up really no matter what measure we looked at."

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com