“Unless ticket writing ramps up significantly before the end of the year, it will be hard to significantly raise collections,” wrote the city’s finance director to the Ferguson police chief in March 2010. “What are your thoughts?”

Three years later, the finance director wrote to the city manager, saying that he had asked “the Chief if he thought the PD could deliver 10% increase. He indicated they could try.”

The revenue-generating enterprise described in the report begins with the police, who, under pressure to “fill the revenue pipeline,” compete with one another to see how many citations they can issue in a single traffic stop. Those cited are then summoned before a court to face fines that city officials boast are among the highest in the region, with hundreds of dollars levied for such violations as “peace disturbance,” “failure to comply” and “manner of walking.” For all three violations, more than nine out of 10 of those cited were black.

For people caught up in this system, the consequences could be devastating. The man arrested in 2012 after sitting in his car told investigators that as a result of the charges against him, he lost a job as a government contractor. An African-American woman who had been periodically homeless was cited once for parking her car illegally. From that ticket, she was twice arrested and spent six days in jail, all while trying to make partial payments on the original fine of $151 and the fees and penalties that accrued. More than seven years and $550 worth of payments later, she still owes $541.