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Photo Radar Rage

Welcome to the Guru's views.

It's no secret that people hate speed cameras and photo enforcement programs. Todays show looks at recent news stories where people have taken their anger out on the machines and the people operating them.

Starting in Canada, On January 5th 2010 Winnipeg Police Service announced they had arrested a male for apparently uttering death threats at the operator of a mobile photo radar unit.

There was no damage to the unit and the operator was unharmed. The operator advised police that he was so upset over this confrontation that he was unable to sleep through the rest of his shift.

The man was released and will be appearing in court at a later date.

Winnipeg Police Service advised they will not tolerate this behavior and remind motorists to just slow down and you won't get a ticket.

They did not release the man's speed, probably because it was just over the 12 kph threshold that's placed on the camera.

All joking aside in this matter though, I agree with Chief McCashcow, do not approach the operators, do not threaten them and do not try to assualt them.

As frustrated as you may be with this program it is not worth getting charged criminally over and ending up with a record, fine or jail time.

Besides it's not their fault that they have no other marketable skills and this is the only job they are qualified for.

As well many are not athletic specimans and startling them out of a deep sleep could cause them to have a heart attack.

So stay away from them. Go punch a red light camera and get your frustrations out that way.

Speaking of red light and pole mounted speed cameras.

Around the world these stationary traffic scam cams having been receiving their share of abuse for many years now.

In places like the UK, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Singapore, the Southern States, just to mention a few, Cameras are taken out of service on a regular basis.

Some are run over,

some are shot at,

Some get a new paint job,

or pretty stickers put all over them

some get wrapped in tires and set ablaze, kind of like burning a witch.

and some....get blown up!

But here's the two that I thought were the best,

On December 4th 2009 beginning at about 4am approximately 250 speed cameras in The Netherlands had gift-wrapped festive boxes placed over them that prevented the devices from issuing automated tickets.

This was part of a publicity stunt for the popular "Go Fast" energy drink.

Aided by about seventy company employees. Many dressed either as Saint Nicholas or Zwarte Piet went merrily about their work.

In a previous stunt, several speed cameras had "Go Fast" advertising stickers placed on them, many are still in place to this date.

This time, however, police were quickly summonsed to remove the festive gift boxes so that ticketing could resume.

My other favorite tactic comes from Arizona where the photo scam cam company Redflex is having it's profits slashed by anti camera groups in that state. It has become a common practice for people to assault the pole mounted cameras with Sticky notes and Silly String.

Neither of the techniques do any damage to the cameras however they do block the camera lens from being able to record alledged offences.

On some of the sticky notes messages were written like scamera, cha ching, and honest mistake, which is, no doubt in reference to Redflex using unauthorized equipment that wasn't approved by the state.

Redflex had written their response to the Secretary of State on a post it note making light of the citizens complaint saying it was an honest oversight on their part.

Now the citizens of Arizona have revolted.

With help from the group CameraFraud public pressure has prevented Redflex from deploying even half of the 200 vans it is allowed to use.

protests near the vans,and sticky notes on cameras lenses have decreased the amount of tickets issued.

now citizens have become aware that they can simply ignore tickets that are sent to them them through the mail.

This is because authorities can not prove the person received the ticket and unless they are served in person, something Arizona can't afford to do, the tickets become void after three months.

Redflex is feeling the pinch as they invested 16 million upfront to provide the equipment.

Although about 700,000 tickets have been issued since Arizona's 76 speed camera plan on interstates was introduced last year,

only a mere 37 million of the 127 million in fines have been collected.

This practice is also occuring in Dallas Texas where 85 percent of the tickets are being ignored.

Since 2002 the city has had a collection rate of only 15.3 %.

They have also accumulated 1.1 million delinquent tickets to the tune of

424.1 million in fines, court costs and fees.

They don't hold out much hope of collecting as 78% of the tickets totalling over 330 million are already over a year old.

In December 2006 Dallas gave ACS, the camera company that also operates in Winnipeg a contract to do 60 intersections.

Guaranteed net revenue figures were given ahead of time to entice the city into adopting the program.

Sound familier Winnipeg?

however due to the non payment issue profits fell well below the expected amount.

The city had anticipated in it's 2008 budget to have over 14 million from photo tickets.

ACS was only able to collect a little over 6 million After the City paid off ACS and the State, it was left with only $677,266.......boo hoo.

Well that's it for this newscast,

Watch for the next edition where I explain what I would do if I received a Photo Ticket from Winnipeg Police.

Until then remember, Just Slow Down, Drive Safe and keep your money in your pocket.


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