If you've moved to rural parts of Coweta County to escape the big city's problems, think again.

In fact, if you live in Senoia or Grantville, you were far more likely last year to be ticketed for a traffic violation than you were in the state's 13th largest city, Peachtree City.

In statistics obtained by The Citizen, Senoia and Grantville have a high per capita ticket rate. Senoia has just over 1,500 residents and handed out 1,239 tickets in 1999. That works out to just under one ticket for every person.

Through April, Senoia handed out 504 tickets, which works out to 1,500 tickets on a yearly basis, or a 25 percent increase over last year.

Grantville handed out 2,500 tickets and has a population of 1,200, which is a little more than one ticket per person, according to Police Chief Jerry Davison.

“Of course, we also have about a mile and a half of Interstate 85 that we help the State Patrol work,” he said.

In Peachtree City, which has 31,000 residents and two major state higways running through it, the police department handed out 6,897, which is one ticket for nearly every five residents.

“We have the second lowest per capita rate in the state,” said Peachtree City Police Chief Jim Murray.

Murray said he has heard complaints about Senoia being tough on traffic and is familiar with how much Senoia police patrol Rockway Road, which leads into Peachtree City.

Murray leads a 54-officer team, one officer per 574 persons, with a $2 million budget, $64.50 per person, to keep Peachtree City safe. In Senoia, the department has a budget of $400,000, $266 per person, and nine officers on the street, or one for every 166 persons, while Grantville has only a four-officer staff, one per 300 persons, and a $350,000 budget, or $291 per person.

Grantville chief Davison said the Police Department doesn't own a computer and said he couldn't provide a breakdown of what type of tickets the city handed out, but said he knows what the majority of the violations are.

“We hand out a good many traffic tickets, but also a lot of family violence and burglary. Anybody who thinks they're moving here to escape crime is crazy,” he said.

Senoia Police Chief Ben Thomas said he doesn't keep a breakdown of the tickets his department writes either.

In Peachtree City, 2,202 tickets, or nearly one-third, were written for speeding.

When it comes to revenue from the fines, Senoia collected $98,000 in 1999, which is nearly 25 percent of the police budget, while Peachtree City collected $212,000 or 10 percent of its total budget. Grantville could not provide how much it collected last year.

All police departments have to give money from fines collected to different state agencies, including Georgia Crime Victim Fund, Victims Assistance and State Wide Probation. Senoia officials also said that nearly $20,000 of its fines collected last year was for violations ticketed in 1997 and 1998.

If you're stopped for a traffic ticket in Senoia, you could also pay a bigger fine. If you run a stop sign in Senoia, you'll pay $90, but only pay $65 in Peachtree City.

If you happen to be speeding too fast for conditions, the fine is $140 in Senoia and $65 in Peachtree City. Speeding 15 miles over the limit costs $90 in Senoia and $75 in Peachtree City.

All the police chiefs interviewed said they get complains from both sides of the aisle.

“The biggest complaint I get is that we don't hand out enough tickets to curtail the speeders,” Murray said.

Editors' note: In order to comply with full disclosure, the writer of this article has received traffic tickets in Senoia.

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