In Pagedale, Mo., residents can get fined for not mowing their lawn, wearing their pants too low, or having a beer within 150 feet of a grill. But a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday is attempting to halt the town’s excess of non-traffic citations.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a public interest law firm has filed a class-action suit to put an end to the hundreds of non-traffic fines routinely given out by the town each year.
The lawsuit is in response to an investigation in May by the Post-Dispatch that found that the town of 3,300, located northwest of St. Louis, handed out 2,255 nontraffic citations last year to residents for violations like failing to put curtains in their windows, overgrown trees, and front yard barbecuing.
The violations amount to almost two per household, the Post-Dispatch reported. Non-traffic violations make up roughly 40% of the city’s yearly citations and have grown 500% in the last five years.
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