Free Republic

Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday vetoed legislation that would have outlawed red-light cameras in Arizona. ... studies have shown increases in rear-end collisions due to drivers abruptly stopping when a light turns yellow ... Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, said the cameras are "cash cows" for municipalities and the companies that operate them. "Cities and towns use the photo radar scheme to collect millions of dollars from unwitting statewide drivers each year. This traffic citation scam enables third-party companies to exploit Arizona drivers, ... Rogers said in a hearing that the companies who operate red-light cameras keep roughly 75% of the...

Cook County Board president Republican candidate Bob Fioretti is calling out Democratic lawmakers over the latest indictment of a member of the majority party after state Sen. Emil Jones III (D-Chicago) was charged with accepting a bribe. Jones allegedly accepted $5,000 from a firm operating a red light camera system. "Red-light cameras are a plague on our communities, and a license to steal from our communities!” Fioretti said in a press release. “They are a hidden tax on Cook County residents created by shady, backroom deals and corruption by our so-called 'public servants.' A billion dollars in 'fines' and a...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who campaigned on a pledge to end Chicago’s “addiction” to fines and fees, is counting on a big increase in city collections from speeding tickets and other violations to balance her 2021 budget. And she wants part of the boost to the bottom line to come from speed cameras across Chicago issuing speeding tickets to drivers caught going as little as 6 miles per hour over the posted limit. Under the mayor’s proposal, as part of her 2021 budget package, anyone caught by a camera driving from 6 to 9 mph above the limit would get a...

Illinois local governments generated more than $1 billion in red-light camera revenue from 2008 to 2018.. Each red-light camera ticket in Illinois costs drivers up to $100.. Chicago has long been a poster child for red-light camera abuse. The city is home to the nation’s highest count of red-light cameras, a former high-ranking transportation official serving jail time for taking bribes from a red-light camera company, and a pricey settlement for drivers who a judge ruled did not receive proper notifications in the ticketing process. ... smaller local governments outside the city have installed almost as many red-light cameras as...

Wilmington, North Carolina renews deal with red light camera contractor that violated state engineering laws. The Wilmington, North Carolina City Council last week signed a red light camera contract renewal despite protests that the state had found the for-profit camera contractor in direct violation of the law. American Traffic Solutions (ATS, now known as Verra Mobility) was found to be practicing engineering without a license by the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors last year. The company has yet to remedy the violation, according to the city traffic engineer. Todd Platzer, a local resident, raised the issue...

Cease and Desist Order Issued. DENVER – The company that designed and installed red light cameras at four Denver intersections beginning in 2008 was not properly licensed according to state authorities and has been ordered to “cease and desist” such operations in Colorado. Colorado’s state board of licensure for architects, professional engineers, and professional land surveyors issued the order Aug. 16, ordering Redflex Traffic Systems to “cease and desist the unlicensed practice of engineering.” ... Redflex was never licensed to practice engineering in Colorado, yet “engaged in the unlicensed practice of engineering when (Redflex) provided professional services to the City...

Speed and red-light cameras are the bane of many motorists. A modern idea made possible by technology, they have been installed in at least 24 states. Although these cameras are a revenue boon for governments across the nation, their intrusion into daily life is disturbing, and their constitutionality is dubious. Specifically, use of these cameras could violate the Sixth Amendment. The Confrontation Clause grants criminal defendants the right to be confronted with the witnesses against them. Since it is a camera and not a person that witnessed the offense, such violations generally cannot be considered a criminal offense. The ticket...

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez on Thursday announced that the city will no longer issue tickets from red light cameras. "The days of our most vulnerable residents being overburdened by these costly fines are over," Suarez wrote on Twitter. In January, the Florida House of Representatives once again called for an end to red light cameras. Lawmakers who backed the repeal contended red light cameras are being used by cities and counties as a way to make money. Those who support red light cameras argue they improve traffic safety.

Starting next month, drivers in Miami will no longer have to hold their breath when passing under a yellow light, now that the city council has voted to end its red-light-camera program. In last year’s elections, Francis Suarez, the successful candidate for mayor, made a campaign promise to cancel the city’s 2010 contract with American Traffic Solutions, arguing that the cameras hurt residents with excessively high fines but didn’t make the roads any safer. Other localities would be wise to follow Miami’s lead and scrap their cameras. Red-light cameras are touted by their promoters –– predominantly camera manufacturers and law-enforcement...

New questions are being raised over whether red light cameras in Pueblo are more about revenue and less about safety... the city is giving drivers less time to get through those intersections which potentially increases your chance of getting a ticket. ... Almost from the start, installing red light cameras has been a controversial topic, and now the focus has shifted to how they are timed. ... According to the National Motorists Association Foundation, the yellow light at that intersection should last a minimum of 5.5 seconds. News 5 Investigates discovered the yellow light is set to last a second...

Outside the Hall of Justice in Fremont, they line up before dawn, waiting to get into traffic court, many hoping to get a break on an expensive red-light camera ticket. “I am definitely not looking forward to paying the $500,” said Rohan Kapuria, who got a ticket last October. “The yellows turned so fast to red that I didn’t have a chance to react,” he said. That happened at Mowry and Farwell, a Fremont intersection that caught the attention of red-light activist Jim Lissner. “Sometimes you see something going on,” he said. Lissner has made it a hobby to monitor...

Photo-enforcement firm Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. announced on Monday that it will pay $20 million to the city of Chicago to settle its high-profile bribery scandal. The Glendale, Arizona-based firm released details of its settlement agreement on the same day that its former CEO, Karen Finley of Cave Creek, is scheduled to report to prison. Finley was sentenced in November to 30 months in federal prison and pay $2 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit bribery in Illinois and Ohio. She was supposed to report to the U.S. Marshal's Office in Phoenix on January 3, but that was since...

In Rochester, New York, the mayor is making a controversial change to the city’s law enforcement strategy. Normally when we’re talking about crime here I’m dealing with murders, sexual assaults and all of the truly horrible things which unfortunately happen. This one, however, has to do with traffic violations. Wait! Don’t stop reading yet… there’s a point to be made here.Mayor Lovely Warren is preparing to shut down the city’s system of automated red light cameras which record motorists running stop lights and are used to issue tickets. Her complaint isn’t that the cameras don’t work properly or are...

This year, Aurora City Council doled out $864,239 in nexus funds among five nonprofits, awarding the most money to nonprofits identified by Aurora police as the most helpful to law enforcement. Aurora nonprofits that receive funding through the city’s “nexus” program dodged a legislative bullet this year, but that won’t prevent city lawmakers from taking a closer look at how the money is being spent. Six nonprofit groups in Aurora receiving money from photo red-light enforcement were relieved after Gov. John Hickenlooper vetoed legislation this year that would have created a statewide ban on the cameras. But how that money...

Proponents of traffic law enforcement cameras on Michigan roads are nothing if not persistent. Hardly a year goes by without a group of legislators trying to empower local governments to contract with vendors of “automated, unmanned traffic monitoring devices" to increase traffic fine revenue. The latest proposal is riding along with a potentially far more massive scheme that would permit hundreds of state and local government agencies to tax, borrow and spend for a virtually unlimited range of new projects (including toll roads and lanes) if they bring in a private partner in a “partnership agreement.” The Senate Commerce Committee...

Full title: Red light tickets thrown out in San Mateo: City to reimburse 948 tickets issued over 45 days because cameras, signals in violation of new state lawsNearly 1,000 drivers who received a ticket for running a red light in San Mateo will be given a free pass after two of the city's red light cameras and traffic signals were found to be in violation of new state laws. The police department will toss out 948 tickets issued between Aug. 1 and Oct. 15 after a San Mateo County Superior Court judge sided with a Burlingame man who received a...

Redflex red light cameras and speed camera deployments have dropped by half as municipalities reject automated enforcement. Only a few years ago, Redflex Traffic Systems was at the top of its game. Stock analysts saw unlimited growth potential in the Australian firm that once operated more red light cameras and speed cameras in the United States than anyone else. Redflex was so confident about its bright future that it rebuffed Macquarie Bank's 2011 buyout offer at $2.75 a share. Today, Redflex trades at 24 cents per share, a top executive has been found guilty on federal corruption charges and the...

Analysis finds no safety improvement from red light cameras in Garden Grove and Los Alamitos, California. Red light cameras are disappearing from California. Once the state had more than a hundred cities using automated ticketing machines, but by now a greater number of jurisdictions have canceled their programs than have functional cameras. On Monday, the Los Alamitos city council decided to keep its cameras despite a new report showing the devices have not improved safety. Jay Beeber, Executive Director of Safer Streets LA, provided his analysis of the safety impact of photo enforcement use to the city councils in Los...

Defense attorneys challenging red light cameras win three cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. The highest court in Missouri on Monday struck down red light camera and speed camera programs. In three separate cases, the high court judges found that the cameras unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof by forcing ticket recipients to prove their own innocence. The judges also found that the creation of "civil" citations and administrative hearings for moving traffic violations violated state law. The decisions were a major blow to American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the Arizona-based vendor .. Earlier this year, the firm settled a class...

High court in Mississippi says state trooper who issued 25 bogus tickets should never have been reinstated with full back pay. A Mississippi Highway Patrol officer who issued bogus traffic citations to meet his ticket quota was fired on Friday by the state supreme court. All nine justices agreed that the department was right to terminate Sammy William Ray and that the state Court of Appeals was wrong to intervene to give him his job back, with full back pay. Ray was a six-year veteran trooper in 2009 when a routine audit revealed that he had been responsible for an...