10/5/2006
Arizona: City Bureaucrats to Issue Warning TicketsHighway workers and other city bureaucrats will be able to issue warning tickets to anyone by entering a license plate into a new online database.
Just about anyone working for the city of Mesa, Arizona will now have the power to settle scores by sending traffic violation warnings through the city's intranet. This means city clerks, roadside repair crews and other workers can bring police attention to any license plate entered into the computer database.
For now, the owners of vehicles flagged in the new system will receive a warning letter without a monetary fine. Mesa has been a long-time champion of the use of red light cameras and speed cameras to issue expensive tickets to the owners of vehicles, regardless of whether they personally had done anything wrong.
Deputy Fire Department Chief Mike Dunn was reserved in his support, suggesting to the Arizona Republic that he does not want to alienate the public. "We want to make it a successful program for them, but it's not our main goal," he said.