At NYT, "Arizona Halts Photo Enforcement of Speed Laws":
PHOENIX — At the first tick of the clock Friday, an array of automated cameras on Arizona freeways aimed at catching speeders were to 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 attacked the cameras with Silly String and a pickax.
More seriously, the operator of a van carrying a mobile speed camera was shot to death 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 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 ignore them.
The cameras, which included 76 units either mounted near the 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 $78 million, far below the projected $120 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 could hardly keep 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.
The use of cameras like this for law enforcement creates a number of problems and I believe creates a great disrespect for the law. It denies the accused the right to face his/her accuser. It can be doctored rather easily by anyone with a little knowledge.
ReplyDeleteOne only needs to look at Think Progress's doctoring of videos and fake tea party infiltrators. Also it does seem that Mel Gibson's conversations may have been doctored. As people who have checked them alluded, "Forensic audio and video experts examined the recordings for HollywoodLife.com and believe someone tampered with them, editing the audio, removing parts of conversation and piecing together phrases to make the recordings sound real." NOTE: It is interesting that Gibson's alleged comments appear just when the Left is in full everybody's a "racist" mode and the NBP is going viral. It also fits nicely with the techniques that the MSM has been using for years.
The cameras have in no place where they are used improved accident prevention or garnered the revenue, which was the real reason for their existence, that was postulated. They are just one more attack by government on our right to privacy and an example of the failure of effective law enforcement.