Texas Collection Agency Riles Up the Hawai'ians

Poor Hawai’i. Or, actually, poor Hawai’ian speeders.

In a super whiney online article, there is a lot of sturm und drang over a Texas collection agency collecting Hawai’ian municipal debt.

In a bidding process, the state of Hawai’i chose Texas collection agency Municipal Services over other, local collection agencies like RCM Hawaii — presumably because Municipal Services was willing to take on the account at a lower cost.

But the “buy local” angle is only one of the irons this article has in the fire.

The reporter is also worried about privacy issues — because maybe Texas is somehow less trustworthy than Hawai’i? “Once the collection agency is involved, they will be provided with your social security number, your date of birth, your drivers license number, all your phone numbers, including unlisted numbers.” Of course, this would still be the case if the account went to a Hawai’ian collection agency.

Oh! And adding a collection agency to the mix makes getting a ticket even more of a hassle? Maybe? Though it’s not like a random selection of Hawai’ian citizens are being sent tickets, just ’cause. Speeding tickets are given to people who speed (sorry for breaking it down, remeidal-style, for you; I’ve watched a lot of Cagney & Lacey though and have a thorough understanding of most of the law and even though Cagney et. al. dealt with homocides, I fail to see how that makes me any less of an expert in traffic law), and it’s not like speed limits are a guessing game where you might or might not guess it wrong.

I guess what I’m saying is: I’m sorry you got a speeding ticket — but I’m not really sorry you got a speeding ticket.

Things, however, aren’t looking great for Municipal Services. They currently have a multi-year contract, but this quote from Hawai’ian governor Neil Abercrombie has a ominous, not-for-long quality to it: “I’m aware of this, and we’ll get rid of them (Municipal Services).”