Posted on 01/30/2002 8:05:29 PM PST by real saxophonist
Denver suspends photo radar
Judge puts program in doubt on grounds that officers don't prepare citations
By Kevin Flynn, News Staff Writer
Denver has suspended its multimillion-dollar photo radar speeding enforcement program until it gets a clearer picture of how to run it within the law.
Because of a Denver County court judge's ruling that photo radar tickets aren't legal because they aren't prepared by police, but by a private civilian contractor, the city will delay operations until it can restructure the program.
"We are stopping the photo radar ticketing operation effective immediately until we have a chance to review the judge's decision and make whatever changes we need to bring it into compliance with the law," said Capt. John Lamb of the Denver Police Department's traffic operations bureau.
It could take less than a month to make the legal corrections, officials said.
Denver County Court Judge Mary Celeste this week threw out four photo radar tickets that had been challenged by lawyers Gary Pirosko, Stuart Barr and one of Barr's clients. Her ruling didn't affect any other pending tickets.
"I'm not objecting to enforcement of traffic laws but it should be done by a police agency not a private contractor," said Pirosko. "Here, the vendor bought the rights to the blackjack table."
Celeste said the city violates its own law by wrongfully delegating police authority to photo radar contractors.
The judge also said the city is violating state law by paying contractors according to the numbers of tickets issued.
The city has not decided whether to appeal the judge's ruling, said Assistant City Attorney Jim Thomas.
"The ball's in the prosecutor's court," Pirosko said. "I don't know if they are going to appeal. But they can't break the law in order to enforce the law. The judge told them flat out they were in violation of state statutes."
Pirosko said he and Barr also are considering whether to file a broader injunction to prohibit enforcement of the photo radar program. "A lot will depend on what the city decides," he said.
Celeste said the city was violating one of its own laws by permitting ACS State and Local Solutions to prepare and send the summons and complaint for photo radar violations.
Only the police can do that under Denver ordinances, Celeste said.
The city is also violating a state law on the use of photo radar that says cities can pay the contractor only for the value of the equipment and can't base payment on the volume of photos taken or tickets issued, the judge said.
"The City and County of Denver may not pay a portion of any fine collected to the manufacturer or vendor of the photo radar equipment," Celeste said. "The compensation must be based upon the value of the equipment."
The city contends that the purpose of photo radar is safety, but the challengers argued that the contractors are making a lot of money. The vans don't deter anyone from speeding if they can't be seen, Pirosko said.
Pirosko said the contractors, Lockheed Martin and ACS State and Local Solutions, received $3 million in 2000.
The three machines cost only $36,000, he said.
"The city is allowing private contractor to use the citizens as an ATM machine," he said.
As a possible solution, city attorneys will look at ways to deputize the employees of ACS but only for purposes of preparing and delivering the 14,000 monthly speeding citations the program is budgeted to deliver this year.
At that pace, photo radar would take in at least $6.7 million if every person paid.
Denver began its photo radar speeding program in December 1998. It was controversial at first because citizens viewed it as a money-grabbing ploy by the city. The three vans often sat on the shoulders of busy freeways and snapped off picture after picture of hundreds of cars doing 65 in 55-mph zones.
The legislature crimped the program by placing a $40 ceiling on fines -- doubled in school and construction zones -- and putting rules on how violators are to be served with the summonses. That forced the city to use sheriff's deputies to serve complaints if violators ignored them by mail.
In 2000, the City Council asked the police department to redeploy the enforcement into neighborhoods so that the program would be oriented more toward personal safety than toward revenue raising.
Staff writer Sue Lindsay contributed to this report.
By Michael Booth
Denver Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - Denver police will stop issuing photo radar tickets to speeding drivers until attorneys and other city officials finish reviewing a Monday court ruling that the program violates local and state law.
Police Sgt. Jeff Kolts said the white vans may still be on the streets collecting traffic statistics but will not produce tickets until police get more advice from attorneys. They are poring over County Judge Mary Celeste's 20-page dismissal of four photo-radar tickets from last year.
"I think that's wonderful. I don't think they had a choice," said Gary Pirosko, the Denver attorney who successfully fought two tickets of his own and those of two friends. "Once a judge tells them they're breaking the law, I don't see how legally or ethically they can continue to do so."
Assistant City Attorney Jim Thomas said a review of the decision and its impact may take a few days. He said it was not yet clear whether the city needed to respond to the decision in court, through changes in the photo-radar program, or both.
"The city is reviewing all of the issues raised," Thomas said.
He added, however, that his opinion is "the judge has made a ruling on four tickets. It has no precedential effect on any other ticket."
Pirosko said Tuesday, though, that the victory will give momentum to a class-action lawsuit he and colleagues are preparing that may challenge hundreds of thousands of photo-radar tickets issued since early 1999. People paid those tickets because they didn't know how to buck the system, he said.
"I knew how to play the game," said Pirosko, a former sheriff's deputy who takes umbrage at replacing police with machines. "But the average citizen doesn't have time for that. What are we going to subcontract next? Have a private company handle all the burglaries?"
Pirosko on Tuesday fielded a rush of calls from drivers asking how they might escape tickets or join in a challenge to the system.
Other court challenges against the 3-year-old radar program have been rejected by the courts. Boulder and Denver have fought off protesting drivers.
But Celeste said the way Denver runs its program violates city law by giving police powers to a private contractor, and state law by appearing to compensate the contractor based on volume.
Boulder traffic planner Mike Sweeney said his city tries to avoid the issues raised in the ruling by keeping the power of writing tickets in the police department. While the contractor takes the pictures, police personnel decide which photos are clear enough and which violations deserve a ticket.
Denver officials defend photo radar as a safety measure with solid results in slowing down drivers. They say the number of cars that pass the vans and trigger cameras by driving 10 mph over the limit has dropped dramatically as people have become aware of the program. Photo radar tickets come with a $40 fine, but the fine is doubled in school zones.
But many drivers suspect the machines make too much money for the city or make arbitrary decisions that violators can't easily challenge in court. The state legislature, led by House Speaker Doug Dean, R-Colorado Springs, took a run at the photo-radar laws in 1999, but the effort eventually ran out of steam, and city programs remained intact.
In 2000, the latest year for which full statistics are available, the three Denver vans monitored nearly 1.8 million cars. Of those, 161,460 triggered cameras; 85,935 of those had pictures clear enough to send out a ticket.
The city took in just over $3 million, most of which went to the contractor.
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