This is appalling. It’s a blatant misuse of the criminal justice system designed to keep small towns afloat and paying their public employees. Radley Balko of the Post has done yeoman’s work outlining just how poorly governed the citizens in St. Louis County are and have been. Moreover, he’s explained the history behind it, describing the various moves of whites and blacks over the last century.

Drive along an approximately 10-mile stretch along the east-west Route 115 (also known as the Natural Bridge Road), and you’ll cross through sixteen different municipalities. At some points along the route, you’ll find one town the right side of the road, and a separate town on the left. There are similar stretches along St. Charles Rock Road (also known as Route 180) to the south, along I-70, and along the I-170 bypass. The town boundaries are drawn in such a way that each municipality in the area gets a stretch of highway, which can be a lucrative source of revenue. “Theoretically, you could be driving home from work on this road, and if you have expired tags or no inspection sticker, you could get pulled over 16 different times in 16 different towns, and written up for the same violations each time,” Harvey says.

Written up and liable for not-insignificant fines from each municipality. It’s almost unbelievable. The obvious solution is for St. Louis (the city) to absorb a lot of these itsy-bitsy places, but each one has a mayor or manager, a council or committee and an ability to appoint people to jobs including judge, prosecutor and sheriff.

There are too many towns, and not enough taxpayers to sustain them. How to fix that problem is another matter. There has long been a movement in St. Louis to merge the county with the city. That movement has picked up steam recent years as advocacy groups like Better Together have pushed proposals to merge a number of public services. But real change would require a good portion of these towns to merge with other towns, or to dissolve themselves entirely. That would require the town councils or boards of aldermen to vote themselves out of a job.

Yeah, lots of puffed-up small-town pols who like the authority they’ve got, small as it is.

The headline for this article is “How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty.” It’s long but well worth your time to read.