Free Republic

ATS secures investment from Goldman SachsPhoenix Business Journal - by Patrick O'Grady Phoenix Business Journal Dave D’Amato, design and engineering manager for American Traffic Solutions Inc., works on a device that will take pictures of speeders. View Larger American Traffic Solutions Inc. is getting an investment boost from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to help it meet increasing demand for its red-light and speed cameras. Although neither company would disclose the amount of the investment, ATS President James Tuton said it was a “significant” amount that will net the former investment house, now a bank holding company, two seats on the...

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists. The legal justification for arresting the "shooter" rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which...

PHOENIX – Arizona is ending a groundbreaking and contentious program that put speed cameras along Phoenix-area freeways and in vans deployed across the state. Opponents have argued the cameras open the door for wider "Big Brother" surveillance and are more about making money than safety. The program has been the target of an initiative measure proposed for the November ballot. Even Gov. Jan Brewer has said she doesn't like the cameras, and her intention to end the program was first disclosed in her January budget proposal. That was followed by a non-renewal letter sent by the Arizona Department of Public...

James Cameron's love of science and high-tech cameras has previously shone through with his undersea documentaries -- not to mention Titanic or even Avatar. Now the film director is playing "public engagement co-investigator" on NASA's upcoming SUV-sized rover mission, which will carry full-color digital cameras and zoom lenses -- but it's a race to complete the lenses in time for the mission's 2011 launch. Cameron approached NASA administrator Charles Bolden about including the 3-D camera in January, according to the AP. NASA had originally cut the 3-D camera and zoom lens options back in 2007, for budgetary reasons. But Cameron's...

People who ran a light recently at a South Seattle intersection known for red-light cameras have caught a break. The camera ...was stolen earlier this month and police are still searching for it. A police spokesman said they've identified a car they believe was involved in the theft, but the investigation is ongoing. The camera is owned by American Traffic Solutions, the vendor that contracts with the city. Under normal circumstances, the city pays $3,750 per month for the camera service. Between July 26, 2006 -- the first day a red-light camera ticket was issued in Seattle -- and May...

The cameras, which combine number plate reading technology with a global positioning satellite receiver, are similar to those used in roadworks. The AA said it believed the new system could cover a network of streets as opposed to a straight line, and was “probably geared up to zones in residential areas.” The Home Office is testing the cameras at two sites, one in Southwark, London, and the other A374 between Antony and Torpoint in Cornwall. The `SpeedSpike’ system, which calculates average speed between any two points in the network, has been developed by PIPS Technology Ltd, an American-owned company with...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two local groups say a Cincinnati-based political action committee is assisting the petition drives they are launching Friday to ban traffic cameras in Cleveland and Garfield Heights. The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) helped write the petition language for proposed charter amendments to end camera use in those cities and pledged legal help for the campaigns, said former Garfield Heights council president Frank Wagner, who is leading the drive in his city. "COAST has a track record of completion and wins on this issue," said Maryanne Petranek of Cleveland and the group Cuyahoga County...

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2010 – In the lead-up to the summer fighting season in Afghanistan, the Defense Department is focused on helping troops counter the threat of makeshift bombs, employing among other things, cameras to catch insurgents in the act of planting explosives, a senior department official said last week. The military has been using elevated, line-of-sight cameras as part of its intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance counterinsurgency tactics, Ashton B. Carter, Undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said during an April 2 conference on defense logistics modernization at the Center for Strategic and International Studies here. The cameras,...

Last month, Herman Jacob took his daughter and her friend camping in the Francis Marion National Forest. While poking around for some firewood, Jacob noticed a wire. He pulled on it and followed it to a video camera and antenna. The camera didn't have any markings identifying its owner, so Jacob took it home and called law enforcement agencies to find out if it was theirs, all the while wondering why someone would station a video camera in an isolated clearing in the woods. He eventually received a call from Mark Heitzman of the U.S. Forest Service. In a stiff...

A masked man, a citizens group, a judge and other motorists are behind the fight against photo enforcement. Arizonans drive long distances on their highways, and they like to do it fast. But since the Grand Canyon State began enforcing speed limits with roadside cameras, motorists are raging against the machines: They have blocked out the lenses with Post-it notes or Silly String. During the Christmas holidays, they covered the cameras with boxes, complete with wrapping paper....

FREEPERS- DON'T FORGET TO TAKE YOUR CAMERAS TO ALL POLLING PLACES IN MASSACHUSETTS! DON'T LET THE FLAG-BURNING SOCIALISTS STEAL THIS ELECTION FROM AMERICA!

Sources Tell CBS 2 That TSA Surveillance Cameras Were Inoperable At Time Of Terminal C Security Breach. TSA Apparently Didn't Know Number For Continental To Get Other Footage. It's a tale of shocking ineptitude: CBS 2 has learned a series of missteps unnecessarily added to the mayhem at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday. The six-hour delay stranded thousands of people, creating extreme crowding and chaos. The mistakes made at the airport give new meaning to the term "domino effect." It was a cascading series of missteps that cry out for action. The sign at the Transportation Security Administration screening...

There are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain watching our every move. In London, there are more CCTV cameras than any other city in the world with one camera for every eight Londoners. But as victims of crime have found to their cost, catching criminals on camera is dependent on the equipment being both monitored and maintained. BBC Inside Out's investigation has found that all too often Big Brother either is not watching, had a broken camera, lost the footage or could not be bothered to go through the tapes. Even within the Metropolitan Police itself, there are differences of...

"LAMBERTVILLE: Restaurant owner jailed on attempted homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and other charges" 14 May 2009 | Uncategorized LAMBERTVILLE — SNIPPET: "Khalid Altawarh, 36, who also goes by the name David Shookby, took the woman’s Jeep Wrangler and fled the scene when she escaped into the arms of a friend who had stopped by to see if she was all right. She had failed to show up for work that morning, May 8, police said. Plumstead Township, Pa., police Chief Duane E. Hasenauer said Mr. Altawarh has been charged with attempted homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and other related...

instead of fewer accidents, the number of traffic accidents has gone up at most of the Los Angeles intersections where red-light cameras have been installed.

...Today, let’s talk cameras. Cameras on utility polls. Cameras on the corners of buildings. Cameras following you as you walk through town, a college campus, or your own neighborhood. Upset? Seems quite a few Atlantans are...

A MAN who established a sophisticated network of peepholes and cameras to spy on his flatmates has escaped a jail sentence after police were unable to crack an encryption code on his home computer. Rohan James Wyllie, 39, yesterday pleaded guilty in Southport District Court to charges of attempting to visually record one of his flatmates when she was in a private place without her consent. But police were unable to prove his elaborate surveillance system had actually been used. Wyllie's three flatmates, two women and a man, grew suspicious that he was up to something when they noticed lights...

Twice in the past two days, SEPTA officials have alerted police to men taking pictures on the Broad Street subway line in South Philadelphia. On Wednesday, a SEPTA cashier told officers about a man taking pictures at the Lombard-South station, but the man, after being questioned by the cashier about his activities, left before officers arrived.

Reporting from Broughton, England - The good folk of Broughton don't take kindly to being photographed without permission. Just ask Google. When the search-engine giant sent one of its specially equipped cars to take pictures of the village for its Street View feature, residents swung into action. They stopped the car in its tracks, called the police and quizzed the bewildered driver for nearly two hours before letting him go. "I don't think this guy anticipated how angry people would get," said Edward Butler-Ellis, 28. "We didn't stand there with pitchforks or anything and block the road with bales of...

LOS ANGELES—In two separate cases, three men have been sentenced to federal prison for attempting to transport sensitive and advanced U.S. technology to the People's Republic of China (PRC). Two men were sentenced yesterday, and another man linked to one of the schemes was sentenced last week to five years in prison. William Chi-Wai Tsu, 61, a Beijing resident, was sentenced yesterday to 40 months imprisonment for his role in exporting high-tech integrated circuits with military applications to the PRC. In a separate case, Tah Wei Chao, 53, of Beijing, was sentenced yesterday to 20 months imprisonment after pleading guilty...