Posted on 02/13/2017 7:05:22 PM PST by Kaslin
Speed cameras became a cash cow for the small village of New Miami, Ohio.
The town, with a population of about 2,200, collected over $3 million in revenue from heavy-footed motorists after it installed stand-alone speed cameras along one of its major throughways, US 127. The speed cameras in New Miami, which is less than one square mile, automatically fined motorists $95 if they drove faster than 50 miles per hour.
It proved to be a lucrative venture for the village just 35 miles north of Cincinnati. Flush with cash, it raised its annual budget from roughly $1.5 million to $2.5 million in 2013.
But now, the Village of New Miami must pay back every cent of the $3 million it collected from the speed cameras, which were ruled “unconstitutional” in 2014 when drivers filed a class-action lawsuit against the village.
An Ohio judge ruled in favor of drivers, who claimed they were unfairly ticketed.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“Where are the hero vigilantes who’ll tear these cameras down in the dead of night when you need them?”
They are all over in the UK where they “set them alight” at night with a “petrol-soaked tyre!”
Google Gatso, and you can see their “handiwork.
I got one returning from a Freep at Walter Reed a few years back. They were doing construction north of Baltimore, and I sat in traffic for three hours barely moving. When the traffic did start to move, everyone was taking off. They had a camera set up on a platform right there at that point. The bastards.
I work for a living. I can’t have my license taken away. Some other ostensibly brave person can risk it. I can’t.
Good info here for red light cameras that also applies to speed cameras:
http://www.highwayrobbery.net/
Interesting link...thanks for posting it.
Now the thing is they put the red light camera right there where they can get the drivers that are going to or coming out of Fort Campbell. They even had a Camera on the Fort Campbell property site of the highway (Fort Campbell BLVD 41A). The Fort Campbell Commander made them move it.
I'm wondering, in a purely humorous, South Park kind of way, if someone could hack the computer system so that every time the camera catches a car speeding, the computer takes a photo of the office desk, or office bathroom, of one of the City Council members and forwards *that* to the database...
No, ticket cameras are revenue generators for the companies that operate them, and for the local decision makers who take kickbacks. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/16/red-light-camera-exec-gets-2m-fine-30-months-in-prison-for-bribery-scam.html
The village reportedly cited almost 45,000 people and collected $1.8 million during the 15 months the cameras were tracking drivers. The village paid another $1.2 million to Optotraffic, the company that ran the speed camera program.
.........................
The village has reportedly spent over $100,000 in taxpayer dollars on lawyer fees defending itself in the case. A lawyer for New Miami told Fox News that it planned to appeal the decision.
IIRC, over in england or scotland some of these speed cameras were burned by dissenters.
Have fun with the cameras. No way they should hold up in court. No accuser and no accuracy.
That’s pure BS. Breaking a traffic laws is typically a crime, usually a misdemeanor, and as such must be handled as a crime which means their must be a crime and witness to the crime and an arrest and an identification... etc. A traffic camera citation does none of that. Your reply was a complete fail.
You should have taken a picture of a $50 bill and mailed it to them :)
I have had at least 7 of them. I have not paid a single one. I have never responded to one. I have beat everyone of them. They are all civil complaints since they do not meet the standards for a criminal prosecution.
Sounds like they’re trying to replace New Rome Ohio which was once a speed trap town not too far from there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Rome,_Ohio
Good.
Rochester NY Mayor Lovely Warren is getting rid of red light cameras purely on the basis that “minorities are being hit hardest.” Those darn law abiding white folks!
:)
I got one once. It was for not coming to a complete stop for 3 seconds, or whatever it’s supposed to be, before making a right turn on red. No traffic in area at night time, I know that doesn’t matter but...would have made me feel better shelling out the 125 bucks if I’d done something more deserving of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.