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Monday, January 05, 2009
Missouri: Anti-Red Light Camera Referendum Gains Momentum
Activists in the city of Arnold as early as this week expect to secure the number of signatures required to hold a referendum that would outlaw Missouri's first red light camera program. Organizers for the political action committee calling itself "Don't Tread on Me" need a total of 835 signatures to give voters a say on the April 7, 2009 ballot on whether photo enforcement should continue in the city.
"These cameras were never about safety," Arnold City Councilman Matthew Hay said. "They are about revenue generation plain and simple. With all of the new developments and related sales taxes flowing into the city, it is more than time to end the 'red light shakedown' in order to attempt to compensate for budget shortfalls."
Hay told TheNewspaper that it took the group took just two weeks to gather the first 500 signatures and that he now has more support than ever. Late last year, Hay had joined with fomer councilman Paul Vinson to found the group in response to constitutional concerns and what they saw as the lack of public consultation in the adoption of the original red light camera ordinance. An investigative report by the Riverfront Times suggests American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the private Arizona company that currently runs Arnold's automated ticketing program, used heavy-hitting political lobbyists to help ram the ordinance through the system.
"The red light camera ordinance was introduced and passed into law in a single evening back in June of 2005, by a very crafty and cunning city council," Vinson said. "The residents had no opportunity to consider the matter and express opinions."
Jay Morris Specter, 53, was one of the key ATS employees responsible for bringing photo enforcement to Arnold and the state of Missouri. ATS fired Specter, who later went to rival firm Redflex Traffic Systems. After having been convicted of fraud, Specter is now serving time at Edgefield Federal Correctional Institution in South Carolina with an expected release date of September 16, 2010. The system that Specter helped put in place has been set with timing so short that in July 2007 a man received a ticket for "running" a light that was simultaneously yellow and red.
No photo enforcement program has ever survived a vote by the public. Cincinnati and Steubenville, Ohio recently voted to ban photo ticketing. Between 1991 and 1997, voters also turned out in Batavia, Illinois; Peoria, Arizona and Anchorage, Alaska to reject photo radar.
Arnold's red light camera petition can be signed at Best Auto, Inc, an automotive garage located on Michigan Avenue by the Arnold Water Tower. A sample copy is available in a 60k PDF file at the source link below.
Source:
Referendum of Legislation Proposed by Initiative Petition (Dont Tread On Me -- Arnold, Missouri, 12/15/2008)Sunday, January 04, 2009
Vigilante Speed Camera Attacks on the Rise Worldwide
As government entities around the globe increasingly turn to automated traffic enforcement during tough economic times, vigilantes have likewise increased their acts of opposition, destroying a number of speed cameras from the UK, Australia and France over the past two weeks.
In the UK's West Midlands, for example, only two speed camera were disabled or destroyed between April 2005 and the end of March 2006. In the following year, there were nine attacks. For the year ended March 2008, the number of attacks increased 44 percent to a total of thirteen. The Express and Star newspaper used a freedom of information request to obtain the figures from the West Midlands Casualty Reduction Scheme. The details show that the majority of cameras were set on fire, although vigilantes in West Bromwich also hurled rocks at a camera on Birmingham Road and "pulled over by unknown means" a camera on The Expressway. Most recently, vigilantes used a burning tire to destroy the camera on Bridgnorth Road near Wightwick in November.
Vigilantes remain active in other parts of the UK. A newly installed speed camera on the A46 Laceby bypass in North East Lincolnshire was torched on New Year's Eve -- before the device even had a chance to issue its first £60 (US $90) ticket, according to the Grimsby Telegraph newspaper.
Across the English Channel, vigilantes in France have also been busy. A camera in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine) was damaged by fire around midnight on December 30, according to Le Figaro. Police yesterday found the twisted and charred remains of another speed camera in Paimpol after it had been destroyed by a gasoline-filled tire. According to Le Telegramme, this marks the fourth attack in two years on the automated ticketing machine on Lezardrieux road near Lesquirnec. France currently has about 2000 speed cameras and officials plan to increase the number to 4500.
In Western Australia last Tuesday, a vigilante grabbed a tripod-mounted mobile speed camera in broad daylight and smashed it against a pole. The incident took place at 4:50 pm on the West Coast Highway in Swanbourne. A speed camera operator hid in his vehicle while the attack took place, only showing himself long enough to take a photograph of the man smashing the camera. Police are furious at the loss of the A$120,000 ticketing machine and have vowed to arrest the man responsible, although he has not yet been identified.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Pinal County, Arizona Bans Photo Radar
Pinal County, Arizona on Thursday became the latest jurisdiction to outlaw photo radar. The new sheriff in town, Paul Babeu, had earlier met with representatives from Redflex Traffic Systems to inform them of his intention to allow the county's contract with the Australian traffic camera firm to expire on December 31. Voters in the county, which is roughly the size of the state of Connecticut, chose Babeu over the incumbent sheriff in November after the veteran law enforcement officer had run for office with the message "End Photo Radar" on his campaign signs.
"So many citizens that have been speaking out -- they've had enough," Babeu said in an interview with CameraFraud.com. "So I'm against it, we have ended photo radar for speeding. Photo radar's last days are now behind us, because they ended on the 1st of January."
Babeu conceded that the state Department of Public Safety will retain the legal authority to issue freeway speed camera tickets within the county, but it is unclear whether incoming governor Jan Brewer would allow her state police chief to disregard the choice of Pinal County voters.
"It's everywhere from Costco to going to church... 'get rid of that photo radar,'" Brewer told the Associated Press. "Everybody that I've spoken (with), other than two or three people, they don't like it."
In a similar case of jurisdictional conflict in Massachusetts, a local police force would flash their warning lights ahead of state police speed traps to help warn the public.
View the interview with Sheriff Babeu:
Friday, January 02, 2009
Redflex Pays FCC $22,000 in Illegal Radar Use Settlement
Redflex Traffic Systems last month agreed to pay US taxpayers $22,000 in order to settle a complaint against the Australian firm's illegal use of uncertified radar equipment. The Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the move on December 23, a day traditionally used to bury controversial decisions while public attention is turned toward celebrating the Christmas holiday. The settlement was designed to punish Redflex while avoiding the staff time involved in pursuing a formal fine that the company would have immediately challenged in court.
"Redflex agrees that it will make a voluntary contribution to the United States Treasury in the amount of $22,000," the consent decree between the FCC and the Australian camera firm stated. "Redflex waives any and all rights it may have to seek administrative or judicial reconsideration, review, appeal or stay, or to otherwise challenge or contest the validity of this consent decree and the adoption order."
In August, rival camera vendor American Traffic Solutions noticed that Redflex had imported and was using German DRS-3 and British AGD-340 in violation of a federal law (47 USC Section 302a) requiring the devices to be certified by the FCC. The FCC standards are designed to ensure that devices that transmit radio signals do not interfere with television and radio reception or with critical public safety systems such as air traffic control (view ATS complaint). The Redflex response was, in effect, that it had made an honest mistake (view Redflex response). ATS continues to challenge the validity of the contract the Arizona Department of Public Safety entered into with Redflex while the company was legally unable to offer speed camera ticketing services.
The National Motorists Association expressed disappointment at the FCC's failure to pursue the matter fully.
"There was no question that Redflex was using radar speed measuring devices that had not been certified by the FCC. There was also no question that Redflex was clearly in violation of FCC regulations," NMA President Jim Baxter wrote. "If the FCC would have carried out its legitimate responsibilities, charged Redflex with violating federal regulations, regarding certification of radar speed measuring devices, and penalized Redflex accordingly, Redflex would have been competitively disadvantaged in seeking future state and local contracts."
In addition to the $22,000 payment, Redflex must train every employee who uses radar on how to comply with US law and the FCC rules governing radio equipment. Within ninety days, Redflex must provide the FCC with a report on its compliance efforts and follow up with additional reports in twelve and twenty-four months.
View the consent decree in a 100k PDF file at the source link below.
Source:
Consent Decree and Order, DA 08-2734 (Federal Communications Commission, 12/23/2008)Thursday, January 01, 2009
2008 Year in Review
The year 2008 was filled with stories of interest to the driving public. Near its end, the obscure story of a Montgomery County, Maryland high school prank involving printing fake license plates so that enemies would receive a speed camera ticket soon made headlines around the globe.
We reported in April on a Riverside, California police raid on a group of automotive enthusiasts who had done nothing more than gather in a parking lot to talk about their passion for cars. The police involved immediately set about to search each vehicle and issue "modified car" tickets to the owners. These tickets are the source of at least $10.5 million in annual revenue from the state highway patrol. No warrants were issued prior to the raid, which was funded by state and federal gas tax revenue.
Government entities looking for new sources of automated ticket revenue could turn to a company that manufactures an automated tire tread ticketing system. The speed camera-like device spies on the tires of passing vehicles and mails a ticket to the owner of any vehicle thought to have tread falling short of the required standard by as little as a hundredth of an inch. In October, nearly three-quarters of Virginia residents had not heard of a state "Move Over" regulation that imposes a fine of up to $2500 on those who fail to comply. More than forty states have similar laws that trap motorists who fail to slow to 20 MPH under the speed limit or change lanes when a police vehicle is waiting on the side of the road. But a Missouri woman found out the hard way that even when following police advice you could wind up in handcuffs. Video tape captured how police treated the motorist accused of "failure to yield" when she waited to stop in the nearest well-lit area after an unmarked police car tried to pull her over in the middle of the night.
In January, the North Dakota Supreme Court showed the same hospitality to drivers in neighboring states by ruling that police had full authority to pull over any out-of-state motorist who drives with a valid, temporary registration tag.
Later that month, the first of the many troubles for speed camera vendor Redflex Traffic Systems began. The company was caught falsifying the documents used in court to certify the accuracy of the speed camera equipment. The Arizona Secretary of State later confirmed that the Redflex employee involved in the scheme violated four state laws. Similarly, a Redflex employee was busted for DUI while driving a speed camera van on duty. In August, each of those Redflex vans was discovered to have been in violation of yet more laws, as Redflex had illegally imported uncertified radar units from Germany and the UK. Redflex ended the year with the unhappy prospect of a voter revolt likely to topple its multi-million speed camera effort in the state.
Fewer tickets appeared likely after an August ruling by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals that tossed a speeding ticket for a resident who had argued the city's 25 MPH speed limit signs violated the requirements of the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. In June, we reported on a BBC Top Gear episode that came up with a fuel economy test in which a BMW M3 could outclass a Toyota Prius.
In July, a series of investigative reports by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch uncovered a scandal where police would impound vehicles from motorists, then turn around and sell these vehicles at a fraction of their value to friends and family members. The scheme fell apart when reporters looked into a number of crashes involving the daughter of the city's police chief who happened to have been driving seized cars.
In May, regulations took effect allowing higher speed limits iin the state of Utah. Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. (R) had signed legislation authorizing a speed limit increase on Interstate 15 to as much as 85 MPH, if supported by engineering data.
This year promises to bring even more interesting stories, so subscribe to our RSS feed or free email updates to ensure you do not miss out.
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