Concerns about Washington, D.C. offering a bounty to a private company, ACS, for every red light and speed camera ticket issued in the nation's capital forced the city government to adopt a "flat rate" contract to eliminate any perception of a profit motive.

The Washington Times, however, has discovered that the D.C. contract isn't really flat. It does provide a flat-rate fee of $651,735 to ACS every month, but it doesn't stop there. A provision approved in a recent contract extension gives a bonus of $19,500 to $23,000 for every group of 2,500 citations above a floor of 53,750. In other words, instead of a "per ticket" bounty, it's now a bounty in groups of 2,500.

The contract itself predicts more than doubling the 53,750 floor stating, "If the city were to roll out everything contemplated in the District's plan, the city could be issuing over 103,300 photo-enforcement tickets per month." That would mean the city would pay ACS $1.3 million per month.

"Having 24-hour-per-day stationary cameras does generate more citations than the occasional deployment of a motor vehicle would," [DC police spokesman Kevin] Morrison said.