Today’s episode of “The Benefits of a Career in Criminal Justice”

1. Esteemed public service
2. Protecting your community from lawlessness
3. Free cars.

Wait, what?
In St. Louis, Missouri, this seems to be true. But is it legal? Ehhhh …
A bonded towing service in the city has been found to be allowing police officers and their family members a hidden benefit on the sly: “renting” confiscated cars that have been impounded from investigations of people suspected (but not convicted) of criminal activity.

How is this possible? More importantly – how did they get caught?
Oh, it gets better.

The local paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/news/stlouiscitycounty/story/00834845f12de2cb8625748c00110686?OpenDocument) found the connection through their investigation of the troubled daughter of the city police chief. She had had a few, shall we say, inebriated incidents on the mean streets of the city. Actually, she had been involved in more than a few. Yet she managed to still keep driving on city roads, each time with a different (but not new) car.
Where was she getting the wheels she was using for each successive incident (and accident)?
Where her daddy’s cops and their families were getting them – the impound yard!

This is probably more incentive than ever to pay your fines early. You never know when your recently-towed car could be speeding erratically past you on the road with the stereo blaring before plowing through a crop of newspaper dispensers.

Visit our site to see more benefits of a career in criminal justice!