Have you been caught by.......

[C6Flatfoot]

.................................A RED LIGHT CAMERA!

We had several good threads about traffic tickets, and letting folks off with warnings, LEO's with warnings, etc, etc....

But how about the impartial Red Light Camera?

I know that in Brevard County, LEO's I talk with hate writing tickets with our economy in the crapper. A moving violation has a $169.00 fine, and higher for speeders. That is really tough to handle for a lot of folks these days. Even the "fix it tickets" went from $10.00 to $99.00! Many more warnings are being written nowadays than were a few years ago.

Most people think that tickets are big money makers for agencies, but that isn't really accurate. Out of a $169.00 fine, an agency will probably receive about $10.00, more or less.

Enter the impartial Red Light Camera.

No one in my agency or any of our municipal employees is exempt. Discretion is out the window. The only good aspect of this for a violator is that he or she won't receive any points against their driver record.

Out of the $150.00 fine, about 1/2 goes to the municipality or county. These are controversial $$$ makers and are catching on all around the state.

The cameras will, and are, being contested in courts and time will tell if they will be around awhile or not.

I thought of this tread because I received a couple of photos in the mail of my vette going past two unmanned .25 cent toll booths a few weeks ago in the Orlando area, and I didn't have any change. I had to mail back $3.75 for each one.

I haven't been nailed by the Red Light Camera Monster yet!

How about you or someone you know?

[chris308]

Kenneth city installed a few just recently and i got nailed for making a right turn on a red light w/o making a complete stop. Luckily for me, it was during the initial start up time and it was only a warning notice i received in the mail.

Needless to say, i make sure i come to complete stops now when i go see my folks!

[Rich Z]

Maybe Florida is going to go the route of Camden, NJ and lay off some of the police force? Certainly having automated cameras doing the job of a bunch of warm bodies is being looked at from a bottom line perspective. If it is all about money, then it becomes ALL ABOUT money....

[Shadow]

Time will tell.
At the moment, I'm not a fan of them, but I'm waiting for the crash stats before making a final determination.

"If" they really do reduce crashes, then I can live with them.
Turn the traffic LEO's loose on some pro-active criminal actuvity suppression

If not, or worse yet, "other" crashes take thier place, then they go away.

I am not at all happy with the fact that we give 1/2 of the $$ or more to a private agency yet still have to have a sworn LEO review them

ATS technicians and police review footage, but police decide whether a ticket is warranted.

Again, if they don't do what they say they do, then they're nothing more than a revenue generator for the agencies.

If you really want to know what your local government is really thinking when they install camera systems, take a look at this:
(*hint-it has nothing to do with your safety *)

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/201...ssue-citations

City commissioners are disturbed that the cameras have not lived up to expectations and are proving to be a time-consuming burden to the Police Department

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar...ac/news-metro/

But officials believe the cameras are saving lives – and also making money.

The fine for blowing a red light is $100. From October to January, Temple Terrace issued 9,339 tickets based on photographic evidence at the two intersections – or nearly $1 million worth of tickets

Where does the money go:
http://www.hardeeclerk.com/index.cfm?LS=38

I ran a stop sign the other day and went to pay the ticket at the Clerk's office. I was curious about where traffic ticket money ends up.

A: The money from traffic infractions is used in a variety of ways. The majority of the dollars and cents stay in the city or county where the ticket is written. The rest of the fine money is distributed to the state for general revenue and a variety of state trust funds and programs, such as: Emergency Medical Services, Brain and Spinal Cord Rehabilitation, Florida Endowment, Child Welfare Training, Juvenile Justice, foster care citizen review panels, Nongame Wildlife studies and state criminal justice programs. The Clerk of Court only retains a half of one percent. The percentage of money received from traffic tickets to be applied to each of the various funds is established by the Legislature, and it is the statutory responsibility of the Clerk of Court to see that the monies are properly distributed.

I used to have the breakdown for ticket fines around somewhere.
When I get back from dinner, I'll try to find them.

[ironhorse]

Wouldn't it be funny to have a license plate the retracts down when going through a light?...Example, your approaching a light that just turned yellow, you start going faster to beat it, when you hit a little button the lays the license plate flat so you can't read it?...

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by ironhorse

Wouldn't it be funny to have a license plate the retracts down when going through a light?...Example, your approaching a light that just turned yellow, you start going faster to beat it, when you hit a little button the lays the license plate flat so you can't read it?...

Believe me, the thought of that or a drop down cover, have crossed my mind. Especially in areas where they talk about "speed cameras.".

Damn, I'm getting cranky in my old age

[C6Flatfoot]

I'm pretty sure that "007" had revolving license plates on one of his rides.

[FLvette]

Originally Posted by chris308

Kenneth city installed a few just recently and i got nailed for making a right turn on a red light w/o making a complete stop. Luckily for me, it was during the initial start up time and it was only a warning notice i received in the mail.

Needless to say, i make sure i come to complete stops now when i go see my folks!

X2 here. made a right onto 58 street form 54th ave and got a warning.

nice pic of my car though

[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.

[Rich Z]

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.

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?