[crazypyro]

Older, more beatup cars tend to have higher "value" for the police officer. Someone driving a brand new Audi isn't going to have the same potential ticketing "value" as a 20 year old rusty car with a beat up bumper, as an example.

[basseq]

... because they're more likely to have multiple violations?

Interestingly, I wonder what has a higher value/ROI for "the system". A) A couple small tickets (worth, say, $200) that don't get paid, result in multiple missed court dates, arrest warrants, nights in jail, etc. Or B) A small ticket (worth, say, $75) that gets paid in full immediately, no court date required.

[crazypyro]

I'd imagine a large majority of all traffic tickets get paid. Knowing that, even if say the average chance of any given traffic ticket being 99% chance of payment, if the beat up car was instead 95%, or even 90%, but you can also tag on an expired tag fine, you've just made your department more money, over a number of traffic stops.