Posted on 09/17/2008 1:25:41 PM PDT by steve-b
Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK. Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the top two photo enforcement providers in the US, are quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients....
The technology would be integrated with the Australian company's existing red light camera and speed camera systems. It allows officials to keep full video records of passing motorists and their passengers, limited only by available hard drive space and the types of cameras installed. To gain public acceptance, the surveillance program is being initially sold as an aid for police looking to solve Amber Alert cases and locate stolen cars....
ATS likewise is promoting motorist tracking technologies. In a recent proposal to operate 200 speed cameras for the Arizona state police, the company explained that its ticketing cameras could be integrated into a national vehicle tracking database....
In the past, police databases have been used to intimidate innocent motorists. An Edmonton, Canada police sergeant, for example, found himself outraged after he read columnist Kerry Diotte criticize his city's photo radar operation in the Edmonton Sun newspaper. The sergeant looked up Diotte's personal information, and, without the assistance of electronic scanners, ordered his subordinates to "be on the lookout" for Diotte's BMW. Eventually a team of officers followed Diotte to a local bar where they hoped to trap the journalist and accuse him of driving under the influence of alcohol. Diotte took a cab home and the officers' plan was exposed after tapes of radio traffic were leaked to the press. Police later cleared themselves of any serious wrong-doing following an extensive investigation....
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewspaper.com ...
A complicit Ministry of Propaganda is already in place.
Ah. Yes. What McCain once referred to as his "base."
I see you've found the pictures of the torched speed cameras. I really hadn't thought of arson, but I'll admit that it's damned effective.
Years ago, there was a test program with those things in central Texas. Car & Driver magazine, IIRC, printed a photo that came from one such unit. The vehicle, a nondescript GM van with license plates hidden with duct tape, was driven by a man wearing a ski mask. He was also pointing what appeared to be a shotgun straight at the camera.
That was that camera's final image, if memory serves.
It's a Shakedown, nothing more.
the way they get around that is no points on your license and insurance can’t use it to increase your rates....so its just a money maker pure and simple for the city....
what makes me mad is i had a driver of a car try to purposly run me off the road one morning because i didn’t make a right on red fast enough for him...i got his plate number and was told by fhp and county sheriff’s office that they couldn’t do anything about it because i didn’t actually see the driver so it may not have been the owner of the car....but yet they can take a picture of your car running a red light and ticket you the owner even though you the owner may not have been driving at the time....
the way they get around that is no points on your license and insurance can’t use it to increase your rates....so its just a money maker pure and simple for the city....
what makes me mad is i had a driver of a car try to purposly run me off the road one morning because i didn’t make a right on red fast enough for him...i got his plate number and was told by fhp and county sheriff’s office that they couldn’t do anything about it because i didn’t actually see the driver so it may not have been the owner of the car....but yet they can take a picture of your car running a red light and ticket you the owner even though you the owner may not have been driving at the time....
no points on license and no insurance rate hike just pay a fine so they can fill up the coffers...
My soldiers used to get tagged by German speed cameras all the time, when we were out in the field. We were one of the few Army units allowed to train and maneuver in the actual countryside, as opposed to dedicated training areas (Grafenwoehr, Hoehenfeld, etc.).
I’d get quite a few humorous pictures of soldiers tearing across the German countryside, through villages. Most of it was harmless speeding.
The Brits are upping their game against the monstrous numbers of cameras. Americans will only do more.
Some people got so mad about it where I live that the courts got an injunction to force the city to quit using the cameras. Then it evidently was overturned by a higher court because I see they are back in business. Some people who were in favor of them argued if you are a careful driver, why would you care? That is not the point.
People who are in favor of it argue that it prevents accidents. I think if people are going to run a red light, they are likely to do it anyway, and how many cameras at how many lights will be enough?
Don't think that I am in favor of running red lights especially at high speeds. I'm not. But if there is a bad accident as a result of it, and there are and will continue to be, cameras or no cameras, they usually catch them anyway, and I doubt four cameras would have prevented it because some people are just too doped up, drunk, crazed, reckless cameras are the least of their worries at that point. They are always back out on the streets in no time anyway. Unwary people from out of town who don't know where the cameras are are caught off guard as well, not that their intention was to slide through a red or yellow light. They'll think twice before they ever want to visit that city again.
We can ill afford this extra expense in a tanking economy. I see it as a way to make for revenue for city coffers so they have more money to spend and waste, among other things, buying more cameras and technological gimmicks.
As to all the other non-traffic cameras in operation out there, I don't know if they act as a crime deterrent so much as they help to catch criminals if the film doesn't get erased; businesses write over the film every few weeks or so. If we go out almost anywhere at all, we are caught on some security camera somewhere. I don't think about it often at all, we've all become so used to it, but at the end of the day, we are paying for all it whether it's a government entity or a private business.
The Brits seem resigned to it. In time, I suppose people will grow to accept them as a normal part of life in a modern society.
“Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS)”
How hackable are these companies?
the Deets
“Finley is unmoved. “People who obey the law never have to deal with us,” she says.”
Absolute lack of understanding of foundational constitutional principles.
Damn marxist subversive apparatchik, w/o lipstick!!!
This dovetails w/ the faulty govt. idea that they have a monopoly on perpetuity.
The 2nd Amendment wholly dissents.
the Deets
“Under a pilot program with the city of Scottsdale, Redflex placed six cameras along 7.8 miles of freeway to catch speeders. Not just any speeders, however. Only those going 11 miles per hour, or more, over the 65 mph speed limit. The first day — when warnings instead of citations were sent — it snared 2,000 violators.”
This is outrageous. I can at least see some reason for a red light camera.
There is no justification for a speeding camera.
This is America, and if somebody chooses to speed, they choose to speed and break the law. It claims to only catch 11 mph or over, but how realistic is that?
Some of the futuristic Outer Limits (’90s version) episodes don’t seem too far-fetched now.
Outsourcing our security and privacy to private foreign companies. And our local governments want to sell our toll roads overseas for now. Can we start trying our government figures for treason?
But still there are those who think the ends of such laws justify the means.
The biggest gang in town is never kept in check.
City of Orlando will be lucky to get half of that money. The lights are likely owned by a private company.
The only upside of such cameras is that city vehicles (buses, school buses, city management, and police) are getting ticketed for “non-emergency” light running for the first time in their lives as well. And the cities are passing the bills to the drivers, not covering it out of the budget. The private companies that own these lights want there money EVERY time.
And the cities are passing the bills to the drivers, not covering it out of the budget.
how is that an upside...??...
As I mentioned in an earlier post, if your state (or city for that matter) has a method of placing an Intiative, or Referendum, or Proposition from the citizens on the ballot, do the following. Find a lawyer or legislator that is as pissed off as you are about the cameras to assist in writing the ballot question and filing it properly. Have the ballot question GO AFTER THE MONEY!!!! Here in Washington, the Initiative is crafted so that all the money collected from these cameras must go to a transportation fund for roads. The Redflexes of the world will not “partner” with a city if they don’t get a certain percentage of the booty. WHALAH, problem solved, cameras start getting removed immediately upon passage of the initiative.
(Grafenwoehr, Hoehenfeld, etc.).
Ah the memories!
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