 Custom Search  How Many Photo Tickets Will It Take Before You Fight Back? GPS is 100% Legal and Pays For Itself. Click Here To Learn More. Edmonton Police Lose Three Year Battle To Conceal Red Light Camera Manuals From The Public.Manuals governing the operation and calibration of red light camera systems must be released to the public.
Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), the private company that operated the cameras for Edmonton (As well as most other Cities in Canada.) in return for a share of the profits, specifically refused to allow police to hand over Instruction Manuals IM-E0207 and IM-E0306, claiming these documents were protected by a confidentiality and copyright agreement with Gatsometer BV, the Dutch manufacturer of the automated ticketing hardware. "To my knowledge any information provided by ACS or Gatsometer BV to the EPS would have been done pursuant to a contractual relationship and provided in confidence," an EPS affidavit explained. The adjudicator seized on the phrase "would have been" to conclude that the department was speculating and did not have a concrete contractual provision stating the document must be kept confidential. Because ACS failed to produce sufficient evidence to prove that the company took the confidentiality requirement seriously, it was not exempt from the freedom of information law.
"The fact that information may be someone's intellectual property does not of itself preclude its legitimate availability to others," the Information Commissioner of the United Kingdom ruled. "Just as library books may be protected by copyright, their public availability is not restricted because of that status." The resident who made the original request for the manuals sought information that could have been useful in fighting red light camera tickets. EPS did not argue that its true motivation was to thwart challenges to its ticketing program. "For the reasons above, I find that disclosure of the manual could not reasonably be expected to result in significant harm to the competitive position of ACS or Gatsometer," the adjudicator ruled. "I order the public body to disclose the records at issue to the applicant." EPS must immediately hand over the manuals to requesting parties and must give evidence to the privacy commissioner by March 3, 2009 that it has complied with the directive. Click here to View a Copy of this Decision. The Guru's Views. This decision hopefully sends the message through to the Camera Companies along with Cities and Police Agencies that you can only hide behind FIPPA for so long before People stand up for their Rights and attempt to Expose a Corrupt System that does nothing except make Camera Companies Richer. They gain Nothing by using this Tactic, it automatically triggers suspicion in people's minds. I mean Really, If the system is so great then why not just operate in Transparency and prove it to the Citizens. Problem is, it's not a great system, it's a cash grab that takes hard earned money from the Pockets of Honest Good Drivers and Owners of Vehicles and invests nothing back. The City's earnings are smaller and depend on People Paying the tickets. Unlike the Camera Company who gets paid regardless. There is no Safety to this System and people need to Wake Up and start Challenging these tickets. The best way to get rid of a Parasite, is to starve it of it's food source. Slow Down, Drive Safe and Keep Your Money in Your Pocket! Larry Stefanuik Phantom Plate Specials and Promos - Buy 2 Photoblocker cans and Get the 3rd for FREE, and more...
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