Photo radar in Pinellas County?

[Shadow]

Unfortunately, the sytems have been working in many northern states for several years and seem to have gone about unattacked. Mainly because the people allow this to happen.

[MADN3SS]

Scottsdale, Arizona Refunds Nearly 2000 Photo Tickets
Nearly $175,000 in bogus speed camera tickets in Scottsdale, Arizona will be refunded or canceled.

The city of Scottsdale, Arizona is being forced to refund nearly two thousand photo radar tickets that were improperly issued over a period of more than three months. The city has been busy preparing to expand its photo radar program by installing fixed speed cameras on the Loop 101 freeway. Last year, the city issued $9.3 million in photo tickets causing a near doubling in the city's fatality rate.

The latest setback to the city's plans began on July 28, when a mobile speed camera van operator for Australian contractor Redflex Traffic Systems made a change in the software that removed date, time and speed information from every alleged violation issued from that device. Over the course of fourteen weeks, no police officer or Redflex employee verified that the required information was actually present in any of the 1964 citations mailed out. The problem was not discovered until November 7.

So far, 580 refunds worth $51,000 have been processed and Redflex has paid back $33,548, its cut of the camera profit. Redflex will also refund the cost of traffic school for those who have paid to attend as a result of a faulty ticket.

Source: Photo mix-up gets drivers city refunds (Arizona Republic, 12/31/2005)

[MADN3SS]

Excerpt from this story.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...ckets0605.html

However an Arizona Republic analysis found that of the nearly 46,700 tickets generated by speed cameras on Scottsdale streets last year, 412 defendants went to court and 13 percent, or 52 people, walked out with no fine.

By comparison, officers wrote 13,106 speeding tickets last year on Scottsdale streets. Of those, 411 took their cases to court and nearly 7 percent, or 27, won.

Motorists speeding through Scottsdale are not alone in beating the odds on a photo-enforcement ticket. Speeders in Mesa are nearly twice as likely to wiggle out of camera citations, and the odds are almost even in Phoenix.

But be wary in Tempe, where drivers are more than twice as likely to beat a ticket issued by an officer than one generated by a speed camera.

Scottsdale judges would not discuss why they dismiss cases, and court records don't give a reason.

But a review of taped hearings shows that Scottsdale judges have dumped photo-enforcement tickets for a variety of reasons, including bad brakes, wet streets and an unsteady foot on the clutch.

[MADN3SS]

I had watched a special on Discovery channel about this. Of course this is George Orwell's homeland. The most cameras per capita. Go figure.

From this site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television

CCTV was developed partly in response to IRA bombings in the United Kingdom. Experiments in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s (including outdoor CCTV in Bournemouth in 1985), led to several larger trial programs in the early 1990s. These were deemed successful in the government report "CCTV: Looking Out For You", issued by the Home Office in 1994, and paved the way for a massive increase in the number of CCTV systems installed. Today, systems cover most town and city centres, and many stations, car-parks and estates. The exact number of CCTV cameras in the UK is not known but a 2002 working paper by Michael McCahill and Clive Norris of UrbanEye [1], based on a small sample in Putney High Street, "guesstimated" the number of surveillance cameras in private premises in London as around 400,000 and the total number of cameras in the UK as around 4,000,000. The UK has one camera for every 14 people.

Traffic monitoring
Many cities and motorway networks have extensive traffic-monitoring systems, using closed-circuit television to detect congestion and notice accidents.

The London congestion charge is enforced by cameras positioned at the boundaries of and inside the congestion charge zone, which automatically read the registration plates of cars. If the driver does not pay the charge then a fine will be imposed. Similar systems are being developed as a means of locating cars reported stolen.

Speed cameras are ostensibly to deter speeding, although critics have claimed they are often installed to generate revenue for the installing agent, who collects the fines.

[pewter99]

I have no knowledge of photo radar in Pinellas

[Hot Pursuit]

Originally Posted by Rich Z

If it becomes a REAL public issue, I think most people would balk at the "big brother" overtones of it. People generally like the idea of cops being around to keep the peace and enforce the laws but I doubt anyone would want to have a cop assigned to be with them 24/7. Which is where this sort of thing would be heading.

Personally I think it would become an administrative nightmare. What happens when someone disputes the charge? Are tapes kept from all the cameras to be retained as evidence? What about management, storage, evidence retrieval and everything else this will require? Someone will have to go to court to present the evidence. So of course each photo image would have to be stored, presumably indexed off of the tag number. Which means the camera would necessarily all have to be tied into a central computer somewhere along with the expenses of maintaining a data center.

And there will ALWAYS be glitches and failures. The most common defense would likely be that there was an apparent equipment failure. So how would the prosecution counter that claim? Periodic tests and calibrations? Even more expense involved.

Sounds like a boondoggle in the making to me.

Yep, but in this digital age the storage of the information / pics would most likely be done on digital media. They would e-mail it right to the court. It could hold millions of pictures in a small hard drive somewhere. All of the expenses (hardware and software) are one time hit, and the tickets keep rolling in with no police salary to pay. Also no OT for court. Even if theres a failure they will be like the insurance and power companies. They will be so far ahead it will be sickening. They will pay back a few cites then it will be business as usual.

I for one, as I am sure Shadow can attest, think officer discretion is a GREAT thing. I know I do not and even if I wanted to, could not stop every red light violation. When I do, I have the choice to write the citation or give a warning. The cameras will take that away. Think of how may times you may have buzzed a yellow light and were glad you didn't see a police officer, or if you did that he gave you a warning. No more of that when cameras are around. A few feet miss of the red light and your toast. Insurance spikes way up and your walking if you get more than one in a 12 month period since the points add up.

I for one will vote NO anytime it comes up.

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by Hot Pursuit

...I for one, as I am sure Shadow can attest, think officer discretion is a GREAT thing. I know I do not and even if I wanted to, could not stop every red light violation. When I do, I have the choice to write the citation or give a warning. The cameras will take that away. Think of how may times you may have buzzed a yellow light and were glad you didn't see a police officer, or if you did that he gave you a warning. No more of that when cameras are around. A few feet miss of the red light and your toast. Insurance spikes way up and your walking if you get more than one in a 12 month period since the points add up.

I for one will vote NO anytime it comes up.

Amen, I'm right there with ya bro