Quote:
Originally Posted by palmbeachvette76
My wife received one of these in the mail a few months ago so I called my Defense Attorney buddy and boy did I learn a lot.
What you receive in the mail is NOT a Citation. Only a LEO can write a citation. You receive a notice that your vehicle was witnessed by a camera crossing an intersection under a red light condition.
If you pay the amount on the notice then the camera company won't forward your wrong doing to the local law enforcement agency who would then generate a ticket which would have points and require you to pay a higher fine and go to court.
So, the bottom line is, it's extortion. Pay us and we won't tell the police what you did. That's why if you pay the notice amount there isn't any points because you never got a ticket. A cop can't write your car a ticket. He has to stop the vehicle and verify the driver by way of a driver's license. Camera can't do that so you can't put points on the vehicle owner since you don't know if the registered owner was driving the car, hell it could have been stolen, spouse driving, kid, who knows.
It's my understanding the the money paid to the camera company is split between the camera company for their expenses to maintain and monitor the cameras and the local city that hired them to install the cameras.
Needless to say we paid and avoided getting a real ticket and having to deal with the hassle of paying the fine and court costs, etc. since she would have lost more in wages than the cost of the ticket. They win!!
My attorney friend said he and many other lawyers in his area (Daytona Beach) have been fighting these and winning 95% of them.
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Kind of interesting that this sets a precedent whereby local officials can hire mercenaries to enforce the law. The mercenaries have a financial incentive to engage within a profitable venture. It's your word against theirs and they hold the stick claiming failure to pay their fee will result in harsher penalties.
I have heard accounts that claim that the yellow light timing has been shortened. That seems like a reasonable method for the mercenaries to increase their profit margin. Want to know how they could REALLY clean up? Intermittently freeze ALL lights at red. How many people do you think would just sit there until the light gets fixed? Cha-ching for every driver that goes through.... Faulty red light? Prove it. It's working now, isn't it?