Posted on 01/10/2010 7:03:30 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
January 11, 2010
Arizona speed cameras may be flash in pan as $90m fines are ignored
Chris Ayres in Los Angeles
An attempt to introduce British-style speed cameras on the other side of the Atlantic has ended in a public revolt, with motorists binning speeding tickets worth $90 million (£60 million). The scheme in Arizona is now on the verge of bankruptcy and might be scrapped.
Its demise would mark an ignoble end to the first statewide effort to bring speed camera enforcement to the US, where many, including judges and elected officials, regard the devices as an unconstitutional taxcollection method.
“I see all the cameras in Arizona completely coming down,” said Shawn Dow, who is leading the public revolt via his chairmanship of Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar. “The citizens of Arizona took away the cash cow of Arizona by refusing to pay.” He is now trying to gain support for a ballot measure banning the cameras in November’s elections.
Although about 700,000 tickets have been issued since Arizona’s 76-camera plan was rolled out last year, a mere $37 million of the $127 million in fines and surcharges has been collected. That is because Arizonans have realised that they can simply ignore tickets sent to them in the post, and the authorities cannot prove that they have received them. Unless the tickets are served in person — something Arizona cannot afford to do — they become void after three months.
Motorists have shown their opposition to the machines in other ways, too — such as placing large cardboard boxes over them, decorating them with sticky notes, attacking them with pickaxes and, in one case, setting off the cameras while standing in front wearing a monkey mask.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
We only moved here a few months ago. There are speed cameras all over the place! I see that Arnold is thinking of installing them in California. Good luck!
Actually it does work that way with jury duty, unless they send it registered they can’t prove you got it so they can’t send you to jail. And registered is expensive. I got tired of wasting half a day not getting picked, so I started chucking them. They’ll resend 3 or 4 times but eventually they give up.
Those are valid points. See my comment 40.
Actually they take a series of pictures. They don’t care if you were legit in being in the intersection, these are revenue generators not justice.
I guess that’s a good enough excuse.
Could be it’s just tougher in NY. I got a jury summons recently and they give you something like 10 days to respond. Apparently so many were ignoring it that they started jailing those who didn’t mail the questionnaire in. And it’s sent regular mail not registered.
Maybe in some states but in NY they’ve been jailing people for not responding. The jury duty summons have always been sent regular mail for as long as I can remember.
Nah, I’m from Albuquerque where we just ended the career of Marty Chavez, the idiot who brought the Red Flex cameras here. But the bad news is we still have them. The good news is the new mayor promised to “study” the issue and remove them if they don’t contribute to safety... So we shall see. BTW I live in the burb of Rio Rancho so couldn’t vote, but Albuquerque is where I work and drive, and is the dominant political entity.
The ones I observed used flash photography, and the first pictures were taken too late to show what really happened in many cases.
Somebody should take that to trial. Mail gets lost, they can’t prove the person got the summons, sending people to jail for a USPS screwup is way outside the law.
The ones in AZ take a series of pictures starting when the light turns yellow, I think they’re on half second intervals.
They usually send it more than once before taking any action. At least twice.
I had fun with a jury request a couple of years ago. The address is serviced by a post office in a neighboring county. The neighboring county sent me a threatening card about jury duty. I mailed it back telling them to go back to geography school before bothering me again. Never heard another word.
But not near as much fun.
A pickaxe is more satisfying. Also, I suspect the damage done is much more permanent. I wish every speed camera and redlight camera would be set ablaze in a massive display of patriotism.
While it’s statistically unlikely for 3 or 4 jury notices to all get legitimately lost we’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in this country, statistically unlikely isn’t proof. They need to be able to prove the person received at least one notice, and non-registered mail can’t do that. Of course this is the same NYC that sent Plaxico Burress to jail for shooting himself.
They won’t forget you though. :)
Did you ever live in the other county? The wife and I lived in New Mexico for a while, the voter registration people had a hard time accepting “we’ve moved, take us off the rolls” and finally 3 or 4 years after we’d left they summoned her for jury duty, we sent it back with the USPS forwarding sticker in the “why I can’t” box. Finally stopped getting the voting stuff.
Fixed that for you.
Lengthening the yellow by 1/2 to 1 second is all that is needed to greatly reduce accidents. Problem with that, is that it doesn't raise revenue. Instead, the police state preferes the extra cash the cameras produce and don't give a damn about the huge increase in rear-end collisions from people slamming on their brakes at intersections.
I’m sure a call in has a smartass * next to my name.
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