>Edit: And could have unintended consequences for the court system, and create unintended incentives to ticket higher income people more vigorously than lower income (potentially creating unenforced laws in lower income areas).

I doubt that would be the case, because wealthy people have access to better lawyers, and police know this. It's one of the reasons they're currently more likely to abuse poor people. They also know that there will be less societal outrage.

Sure, it might be more expensive (added bureaucracy), or less (less unemployed people in jail... the country pays for them, right?). It might lead to targeting, or to a fairer society.

Everything has drawbacks, and I am not competent enough to estimate all possible effects on society at large. But the current system does not seem to be perfect either, and ideas for improving it should be considered (and sometimes discarded, of course).

I live in a high tourist area during the summer months (late May through early September). The police in our town are fairly strict, but extremely fair, when it comes to enforcing laws. However, there are certain tickets (i.e. speeding) where a significant portion of the revenue from the fine goes to the state. This is the case regardless of whether the infraction occurs on a "state maintained" or "town maintained" road. On the other hand, there are other types of tickets (i.e. parking violations) where 100% of the revenue goes directly to the town. What happens is that during the summer months (more tourists) tickets with a higher value to the town tend to get receive more enforcement time compared to tickets with a lower value to the town.