Free Republic

<p>Here in Middle America, there are small towns where going a couple of miles per hour over the speed limit will get you stopped by the town’s lone police officer. These “speed traps” are dotted throughout the region as, many times, a significant portion of a town’s revenue comes from issuing these tickets.</p>

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...

The Democrats, and their allies at The NY Times, must be worried about Senator Rubio.    How else do you explain the silly story about Senator Rubio and traffic violations?   How do you explain it in light of The NY Times’s total silence about Senator Obama's driving record? To be fair, a story about reckless driving could be relevant about a person's character, especially if it involves alcohol or drugs.   It may be something we should know about the candidate if there is a pattern of recklessness. There is nothing like that in Rubio's past.  This Rubio...

In what reads almost like a parody, the New York Times went large today with news about Marco Rubio’s supposedly dangerous driving record. The only problem was that it was a complete dud of a story that made its reporters look like chumps. Here are the four major problems with the piece.Not much of a hit The piece is headlined “Marco Rubio and His Wife Cited 17 Times for Traffic Infractions,” and begins: Senator Marco Rubio has been in a hurry to get to the top, rising from state legislator to United States senator in the span of a...

TRAFFIC COURT PROCEEDINGS

Thanks to loopholes in Colorado and California laws, local officials and their families are avoiding thousands of dollars in parking fines and traffic violation tickets, according to investigations by a Denver-based CBS affiliate and others. Intended to protect police officers and other public employees from criminals, the Colorado law gives 100 lawmakers and representatives a way to avoid radar tickets for speeding, as well as dodge collection notices on past-due parking tickets. The loophole emanates from a provision that prevents legislative plates from being entered into the Division of Motor Vehicles database; therefore, if someone sporting one of the special...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Chances are, your local or state police departments have photographs of your car in their files, noting where you were driving on a particular day, even if you never did anything wrong. Using automated scanners, law enforcement agencies across the country have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movement of every vehicle with a license plate, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. Affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings, the scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, uploading that information into police databases....

Each day, thousands of cars—sometimes as many as 18,000—rolled along Elmwood Place’s streets, crossing the third-of-a-mile town to get to neighboring Cincinnati or major employers in bustling suburbs or heavily traveled Interstate 75. Many zipped by Elmwood Place’s modest homes and small businesses at speeds well above the 25 mph limit. Bedeviled by tight budgets, the police force was undermanned. The situation, villagers feared, was dangerous. Then the cameras were turned on, and all hell broke loose. Like hundreds of other U.S. communities big and small, Elmwood Place hired an outside company to install cameras to record traffic violations and...

New State Law Gets Tough on Illegal Speeders NEW ‘SUPER SPEEDER LAW’ STARTS NEW YEAR WITH NEW FINES (JANUARY 1, 2010) Georgia drivers should mark that date on their calendars and put a sticky note next to their keys.. January 1st, 2010. It’s the day the new state ‘Super Speeder Law’ goes into effect in Georgia. And any high-risk drivers who make a habit of ignoring posted speed limits will be the first to feel the pinch of higher state fines (called fees) on their wallets. How much higher? The new law titled HB160 tacks-on another two-hundred-dollar state-fee for any...

It's 1:45 p.m. on a Wednesday in February and a Toyota Camry is driving west on the 91 Express Lanes, for free, for the 470th time. The electronic transponder on the dashboard – used to bill tollway users – is inactive. The Camry's owners, airport traffic officer Rudolph Duplessis and his wife, Loretta, have never had a toll road account, officials say. They've never received a violation notice in the mail, either. Their car is registered as part of a state program which hides their home address on Department of Motor Vehicles records. The agency that operates the tollway does...

Last week, Dallas officials reviewed the numbers and decided that a quarter of the cameras they had installed to catch motorists running red lights were too effective. So they shut them down. They are not alone. Faced with data showing that drivers pay attention to cameras at intersections — resulting in fewer ticketable violations and ever-shrinking revenue from fines — municipalities across the country are reconsidering red light cameras, which often work too well.

A Metro General Sessions judge summarily retired dozens of traffic tickets scheduled to be heard earlier this month, including one for House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. Metro General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland says he doesn't think he did anything wrong when he cleared 72 of the 74 tickets for people that showed up to traffic court on Feb. 16. The decision to retire the tickets had nothing to do with Naifeh, the judge said. The judge said he was in a buoyant mood after learning he would be running unopposed in this year's election. "It just happened to be 30 minutes...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- An investigation concluded that a Des Moines woman faked her own death to avoid paying traffic tickets. Polk County investigators said Kimberly Du, 36, faked her own obituary and forged a letter telling a Polk County judge she was dead. Du is spending time in the Polk County Jail in connection with a forgery charge. Court documents show that Du tried to avoid paying several tickets by sending a letter to the courthouse. The letter is allegedly signed by Du's mother and said Du died on Dec. 5, according to court documents. Investigators said the information...

I was interested in any FReepers who have had personal experience with photo traffic citations. Especially in CA and for supposedly running a red light. I received a citation in the mail. They claim I ran the red light while making a "right-on-red." Anyone who actually has information on the photographic equipment and/or has worked for one of these companies and could shed some light on their accuracy would be appreciated. Any info on the people who make the decisions about such tickets would also be appreciated. I understand these companies who install the equipment receive a commission on the...

Vitter calls emphasis on traffic tickets 'a silly attack' By MARSHA SHULER mshuler@theadvocate.com Capitol news bureau A national Democratic group is making political hay over Republican U.S. Rep. David Vitter's propensity to get traffic tickets. Vitter, a candidate in Tuesday's U.S. Senate election, called the disclosure "a silly attack." The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee circulated to the media details about 14 separate tickets that Vitter received for traffic violations between 1988 and 2003. The traffic tickets included four for speeding, two for failure to obey traffic signs, and one with multiple violations, including allegations of failure to maintain control of...

DANVERS — Patrolmen have cost the town $173,000 by refusing to write traffic tickets in a ploy to influence contract negotiations, top police brass and town management officials allege in a complaint filed with the state last week. Town officials claim police union members are handing out warnings rather than tickets in an effort to cost the town money and gain leverage at the bargaining table, according to their complaint to the state Labor Relations Commission. The 44-strong police union has gone nearly a year-and-a-half without a new contract in a dispute over raises. But at least on police union...

Controversial for years because of thefts from its mayor's court and a reputation as a traffic ticket-trap, New Rome has been on a path toward dissolution since 2001. * Nov. 6, 2001: Jamie Mueller is elected mayor of New Rome. He receives six votes and is unopposed. A West Side business owner, Mueller vows to reform the police department, which raises more than $300,000 a year ticketing motorists on a 1,000-foot stretch of W. Broad Street. * Jan. 8, 2002: Mueller takes office despite threats by the police chief to arrest him on a charge of election fraud. The Franklin...