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A Palm Beach Post investigation finds that for a number of years Atlantis - a "small, wealthy, nearly crime-free South Florida" town - has been "churning out tickets to nearly everyone but its own residents." A Post computer analysis of the tickets written by city police shows that "in one year's time, 99.3 percent of all tickets ... went to out-of-town drivers," and that "collections from traffic ticket fines have jumped by 1,067 percent since 1995." The report details how Atlantis police spots local drivers - who are required to "sport green identification stickers ... on the front and the rear of their vehicles" - and gives them warnings more often than tickets. The story points to the issue as "a question of ethics," as Atlantis has broken no laws, according to the state attorney's office and American Automobile Association. The story reveals that other small towns in South Florida - including Jupiter Island, Gulf Stream and Hacienda Village - also ticket mostly nonresidents.

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