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Billings, Montana plans to shorten yellow times to cash in before the state legislature bans red light cameras. Yellow times may shorten as the city of Billings, Montana rushes to install red light cameras before the state legislature has a chance to ban them. The Billings City Council voted 8-3 Monday to empower Redflex Traffic Systems, a private company based in Melbourne, Australia, to issue automated traffic citations in return for a cut of the revenue collected. Billings needs to act quickly because the state legislature last Thursday entered into final negotiations on legislation that would ban red light cameras....

Duncanville, Texas mayor silences anti-camera councilman by having him arrested. The mayor of Duncanville, Texas had a member of the city council arrested last Tuesday for speaking out against the use of red light cameras during an official meeting. The incident took place during the discussion of whether the city should spend $59,000 to make street repairs. Mayor David Green recognized Councilman Paul Ford to speak on the contract item. "Thank you," Ford said. "I want to let you know that earlier this evening during briefing, Mayor Green threatened me that if he told me to stop talking and I...

New York state legislature approves massive expansion in red light cameras. As budget deficits continue to soar at all levels of New York government, the state legislature on Tuesday approved a package of bills to provide relief through the use of red light cameras. The package of six bills extends new authority to use red light cameras to Buffalo, Nassau County, Rochester, Suffolk County and Yonkers. The legislature also gave the nod to New York City's long-held desire to increase by half the number of automated ticketing machines already installed. Each project is called a "demonstration program" that will produce...

Some Texas law makers are pushing a bill to get rid of all red light cameras in the state. Motorists who spoke with CBS 11 had varying opinions. Leticia Menchaca said her car was tagged down in Houston by a red light camera. She said she wasn't even in Houston. She hasn't had much luck with red light cameras. Colleen Pilgrim took a different view, saying she's tired of people running red lights all of the time and causing accidents. But she believes they were put in to create extra money for city governments. Representative Carl Isett of Lubbock has...

Red light cameras shut down across Italy in massive fraud scandal involving 109 public officials and contractors. Red light cameras are shut down across Italy as the largest ever government investigation into the illegal use of photo enforcement expands. Motorist complaints about being trapped at camera-equipped intersections with short yellow signal durations sparked the inquiry. Criminal charges of forgery and fraud are based on four basic complaints, many of which represent common practices in the United States. First, municipalities are accused of shortening yellow times to boost profit. Second, investigators found that municipal police never reviewed the camera fines. Instead,...

Among the bills signed into law by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Friday is House Bill 1568, which bans the use of cameras to catch motorists running red lights. Mississippi joins at least eight other states in banning the automated technology, including neighboring Arkansas.

St. Louis, MO- The city installed red light cameras at twenty intersections, and they've taken in nearly $2 million in fines since they were installed last summer. Traffic Law Center where spokesperson Ann Horner says she see flashes from the camera on a daily basis. Horner however says there are no consequences for not paying. She says if you have outstanding parking tickets you cannot renew your plates or driver's license, but there's nothing in place like that if you get a red light ticket. Horner says it's all unconstitutional because there's a presumption of innocence in this country, and...

In February 2006, the City of Gallatin unveiled the Automated Camera Enforcement System. The system, known as A.C.E.S., is designed to catch drivers running red lights at intersections. Rather than relying on police officers to perform this function, the cameras automatically trigger when a driver enters an intersection after the light turns red. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Gallatin is not alone. At least nine other communities in Tennessee... Red Light Cameras are sophisticated surveillance systems designed to catch drivers who run red lights. Though the majority of the systems in Tennessee focus on red light runners,...

The Minnesota Supreme Court delivers a unanimous decision striking down the legality of red light cameras. The supreme court found that Minneapolis had disregarded a state law imposing uniformity of traffic laws across the state. The city's photo ticket program offered the accused fewer due process protections than available to motorists prosecuted for the same offense in the conventional way after having been pulled over by a policeman. The court argued that Minneapolis had, in effect, created a new type of crime: "owner liability for red-light violations where the owner neither required nor knowingly permitted the violation." The court also...

drivers are celebrating after they fought their automated tickets for running red lights and won. This week, a Prince George's County judge threw out more than a dozen red-light tickets taken by a camera on Annapolis Road because the drivers never actually drove through the intersection. Now, transportation officials are demanding the cameras be removed. mobile red light cameras do not comply with federal and state standards. "This program is illegal, it is illicit and it is illegitimate because it's charging people for running red lights they have not run," Townsend said. Last June when the controversial cameras first went...

Traffic cameras billed as answer to Chicago's budget deficit Red-light cameras have been combined with short yellow lights to catch drivers and raise city revenues across the country. Now an insurance-checking camera company has presented Chicago with a new twist on the idea—instead of speeders, go after the uninsured. The Windy City, like a lot of other metropolitan areas of late, is facing major budget deficits in the face of the recession's strong bite. State and local governments alike have been hunting for additional sources of revenue, so it's not surprising that a Chicago alderman would entertain the possibility of...

CLIVE, Iowa - Minutes after Neel Manglik illegally turned right on a red light in the Des Moines suburb of Clive, a video popped up on a computer at an office park outside Scottsdale, Ariz. The $75 citation arrived in the mail weeks later, making Manglik one of the millions of Americans ticketed as part of a growing industry that is making handsome profits for companies that operate video cameras at busy intersections throughout the nation. As more cities sign up and others invest their profits into more cameras, those companies expect increased revenue for years to come. What's less...

If you run a red light, you could get a ticket. A few legislators want to change that equation. Their idea: If your car runs a red light, you will automatically get a ticket. A pair of Bedford Republicans, of all people, have introduced another red light camera bill. Sen. Sheila Roberge and Rep. John Graham want to allow local police departments to install cameras at intersections. If the camera photographs your car running a red light, you will be sent a ticket. Click for Editorials & Op-EdsSo much for being innocent until proven guilty. With red light cameras, you...

A Duncanville City Council member wants to re-evaluate how the city issues citations to red-light runners and make it easier for suspected violators to request a jury trial. Paul Ford questions the nearly 45,000 citations issued in 2008 at four intersections monitored by cameras. Compared with Duncanville's population of 38,500, he said, the number of citations seems excessive. Ford will ask fellow council members to vote on a proposal at tonight's council meeting that would allow suspected violators to ask for a jury trial in municipal court. But City Manager Kent Cagle said Duncanville already allows for jury trials. Ford...

Lilburn, Georgia suspends red light camera program after extended yellow time cut violations by 80 percent. On January 1, a new Georgia law kicked in forcing a one-second increase in the duration of the yellow warning light at intersections with red light cameras. The result has been devastating for red light camera makers as violations -- and revenue -- immediately plunged for the months of January, February and March. Last week, the city of Norcross dumped photo enforcement. Now the UK-owned red light camera maker Lasercraft is offering its customers a 90-day suspension of service to prevent cities from dropping...

Revenue trouble may end red light cameras in Upland, California. Officials prepare for possible refund of illegally issued tickets. The Upland, California City Council is expected to vote Monday to stop using red light cameras because the program has not only failed to improve safety, it has also failed to generate sufficient revenue. In a memorandum to the city council, Upland Police Chief Steve Adams recommended canceling the city's contract with Redflex Traffic Systems, the Australian company that has been issuing tickets on Upland's behalf since November 2003. "The monthly revenue from the service has not covered the salary and...

Kansas City is about to put the pedal to the metal on its first red-light camera. Beginning Saturday, red-light runners at 39th Street and Southwest Trafficway can expect to receive a letter in the mail with instructions on where they can send their $100 fine plus $13.50 in court costs. Visa and MasterCard will be accepted. *****SNIP***** Sensors in the road are linked to the cameras, which capture still and video images. One photograph captures a vehicle as it nears the intersection after the light has turned red. The system tells the monitoring officer which lane the vehicle is traveling...

Police in Houston, Texas put pressure on a Rice University professor to alter negative data compiled while studying Houston's red light camera program, according to documents released in a lawsuit against the city. Houston Mayor Bill White had selected Urban Politics Professor Robert Stein to create a report on the engineering safety performance of the first fifty automated ticketing machines installed (view study released in December). Stein represented an ideal choice because his wife, Marty, is employed by the city of Houston as a top aide to the mayor. In a November 2007 email, White emphasized his personal interest in...

A bill introduced last week in the General Assembly quietly seeks to eliminate a significant motorist protection built into Virginia's existing red light camera law. The proposal of a pair of Democratic state delegates representing Virginia Beach, Joseph F. Bouchard and Robert W. Mathieson, would delete just three words from that statute, but the change would have wide-ranging effects. Under current law, cities that want to install traffic cameras must first submit a detailed engineering justification to state transportation experts. "A locality shall submit a list of intersections to the Virginia Department of Transportation for final approval," Virginia Code Section...

Two New Hampshire GOP House members have added their names to a Legislative Service Requestion seeking to introduce a bill allowing red light cameras in the Granite State. House members Ken Hawkins (R-Bedford) and John A Graham (R-Bedford) have joined NH State Senator Sheila Roberge (R-Bedford) in sponsoring LSR 2009-S-0874-R, titled "authorizing the electronic enforcement of traffic signal violations." Red light cameras snap a digital photo of vehicles caught inside the intersection when the the signal changes from yellow to red, not just those entering the intersection after the signal changes to red. With no video to contest the situation...