Usa Begins To Dump Speed Cameras

[hypnodoc]

This report was in the New York Times yesterday. You can say what you wany about Yanks but at least they have the balls to stand up and not take crap from their Govt. See below

From the New York Times Friday July 16th 2010. By Randall C. Archibald

PHOENIX – As 17 other US states contemplate joining the line, at the first tick of the clock Friday, an array of automated cameras on Arizona freeways aimed at catching speeders will stop clicking.

There is no glitch. The state, the first to adopt such cameras on its highways in October 2008, has become the first to pull the plug, bowing to the wishes of a vocal band of conservative activists who complained that photo enforcement intruded on privacy and was mainly designed to raise money.

It was a tumultuous impassioned run here. A man wearing a monkey mask racked up dozens of tickets fighting them in court, to protest the system. Vandals at different times strategically attacked the cameras with silly string and pickaxes.

More seriously, the operator of a van carrying a mobile speed camera was shot dead on the side of a freeway in April 2009. The suspect is being prosecuted on first-degree murder charges and the family of the victim has announced a massive lawsuit against the Department of Public Safety.

Gov. Jan Brewer, a republican seeking election to a full term never embraced the program, begun under her predecessor, Janet Napolitano, a Democrat whose revenue projections from the tickets fell short largely for a simple reason: violators tended to just ignore them.

The cameras, which included 76 units either mounted near the road shoulder or operated from Vans, were adept at snapping speeders as they whizzed past sensors, but getting offenders to pay after the tickets were mailed to them was another matter.

Less than a third of the 1.2 million tickets issued were paid, and the state collected only $78 million, far below the projected $128 million annual revenue.

Some of those tickets, typically $181 apiece, no doubt were lost in the mail; others no doubt were not paid as violators tested a legal theory that they needed to be served in person. Process servers who were supposed to follow up had no chance of keeping up with the load.

Ms. Brewer made no secret of her disdain for the system operated by Redflex Traffic Systems, which will turn off the cameras the moment its contract expires on Friday.

“She opposed the program because it was designed primarily as a state revenue generation tool,” Ms. Brewer’s spokesman, Paul Senseman, said this week. She is also uncomfortable with the intrusive nature of the system. She is willing to allow voters the opportunity to decide the future fate of the system, and anticipates there will be continued discussion and debate of the proposal in the Arizona legislature.”

Some of the loudest critics were conservatives, who organised protest groups and continually prodded legislators to impose restrictions on their use, arguing the cameras amounted to, as one citizen put it, “government spying on its citizens.”

“It is unconstitutional,” said Shawn Dow, founder of Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar, who also questioned the safety benefit and propriety of having Redflex, whose parent company is based in Australia, involved in issuing tickets to Americans.

The Department of Public Safety had initially reported a 19 percent drop in fatal collisions in the first nine months the cameras were in use, but after evidence surfaced of flawed data analysis surfaced a new director of the department was named an no date have been released since that embarrassing incident.

[f-wolf]

Nice find. Some parts of the UK are doing the same.

We can only wish and hope !! But ... I won't be holding my breath.

[Rancidpunx]

Good for them I say. I love that they just didnt pay the fines. Proves the government cant do sh*t. They just dont have the man power to keep up the with thousands of fines daily. Would not be any different here.

[Dagabond]

United we stand....

[RegSpec]

Good for them I say. I love that they just didnt pay the fines. Proves the government cant do sh*t. They just dont have the man power to keep up the with thousands of fines daily. Would not be any different here.

Id love to get excited about this thread, however, since we have such a small population compared to the US.....it's so much easier for the authorities to keep an eye on us.

Here....they just can your licence and/or rego....and with our somewhat inept Govts., they depend more on the revenue stay afloat....

There's big business in speeding fines, why do you think Maquarie bank just bought a big slice of the company that makes this technology for the Govt?

[tab]

...and also the fact that infringements do not have to be served in-person as per the USA. Technically they aren't issued with a speeding fine until it is either handed to them by a cop or a process server (as mentioned in the article).

Here in good old Aus it's 'served' as soon as it enters the letter box. Don't pay it and you face further convictions and recovery of money via the fastest growing state government departments that will garnish wages or siphon money out of your bank account depending on the circumstances.

So probably not the best idea to start a revolt against paying speed camera fines. Front line enforcement may be lacking but the number of pen pushing leeches certainly isn't.

[Dagabond]

...divided we fail.

[RegSpec]

Nah...get it right Dags....

When it comes to revenue and greedy Govt departments.....we fail anyway

[dule]

We have a huge number of people who just bend over and take it,

we also have a lot of those who say "well don't complain, don't speed and you will not get fined" I hate those the most!

and we have a very small number of people who would be prepared to do something but those capable and prepared to start something are even harder to find.

As little as I like the yanks I got to give them credit for standing up for themselves and not just not bending over and taking it.

[ronburgundy]

I think you give them too much credit. I'm not sure their non-payment is an active act of defiance, for not only the reasons stated above (personal service etc) but also for the fact that they really just don't give a crap. Entirely different culture.