 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. Where's Waldo? Click photo to enlarge. October 22,2008 This photo was taken on September 19, 2008. Right click on it and save a copy to your drive and then using Windows picture viewer enlarge it and tell me what you see and what you don't see. Now before I comment on this picture in particular, let's go back a little in time to a posting at the blog of Mike on Crime from the Winnipeg Free Press. Titled Two Sets of Laws it was about a person called JP who got a photo ticket while entering the speed change at the construction on Bishop Grandin. JP explained how he tried to fight the ticket using the argument the photo van was illegally parked while doing enforcement, thereby evidence collected shouldn't be accepted. He Lost. At first glance it seems unfair, maybe in some ways it is but this is the system that you have to work around. Laws are protected by other laws to convenience them and inconvenience you. Just like it's unfair that they can create a law that takes a demerit offence like speeding or going through a red light and for the sake of convenience and multiple enforcements design a law to make them non-demerit offences, then take a non demerit offence like obstructed plate and amend it to include applying a substance to defeat the cameras and turn that into a demerit offence. Simply put, so called dangerous offences become less serious so revenue can be generated and a non serious offence now affects your licence so as to deter you from using a photo blocking product to disrupt the revenue stream! It helps to have a complacent population that's easily conditioned to believe that the cameras are good. They are good!.....For the companies that run them. Did you know that some are being approached by investment firms to buy them out and have control over them because of the massive growth potential? The demand for more cameras has increased as local jurisdictions continue to feel the pinch from the financial crisis leaving cities struggling to find money to fund new programs. When these companies drop in and offer "turn key" red light camera and speed camera solutions, with no effort or cost exposure on the part of the jurisdiction, many officials see nothing to lose by signing up to allow them to issue tickets on its behalf. Back to the blog, I commented to JP that his approach was wrong and had he asked some pertinent questions things would have turned around in his favor. JP like many others let the cloud of frustration at an unfair system, blind them to the answers that are right in front of them. This same frustration also causes many to just shut up and pay their tickets because no demerits are assessed, they see no way of winning and they feel completely powerless. So how do you empower yourself? Start by taking an honest look at the event and ask yourself, -Was this complete neglect on your part? -Are you a bad driver who was reckless and endangering the lives of workers who were no where near your vehicle? Or.......did you just not slow down right away because there were no vehicles or workers even close to the speed change? -You were paying attention to your surroundings and were slowing down as you got closer to the actual construction? Regardless of which category you fall under, the reality is, your photo was taken by a machine that didn't think your actions were dangerous enough to pull you over for what is normally a demerit offence. If you had been a bad driver, no one was stopping you from endangering a life and if you are not the owner of the car, no one could ever make you accountable for your actions. But I thought the cameras were there to protect the workers? No, they just take a photo of the vehicle before it 'endangers a life.' Now ask yourself, if we don't do something about this real injustice, what happens next? It's already happening! They have already installed a test camera for the Diamond lanes on Osborne. Other city's have them for right turn violations. How about Noise Cameras? Yes, Australia has just deployed noise cameras. Also the UK is now using Speed Cameras to Monitor Every Stretch of Road in their bid to 'Combat Global Warming'. That's right, using the SPECS3 "distance over time speed measuring device" it will make it impossible to drive on any primary road in Britain without being tracked and subjected to an instant fine for exceeding the posted speed limit. Wow! When are we going to get that as part of the Governments Green initiative? So have you figured out why you should be fighting your photo enforcement tickets yet? The bad drivers aren't fighting them....or paying them, the government doesn't think your dangerous enough to stop you endangering others, they just send you a photo a couple of weeks later if the photo was clear or the device was working. Sometimes you get lucky and 'the system malfunctions', some officials have all the luck!
You stop being angry about getting it and plan your strategy. How much over the limit were you? More importantly, how much over the threshold were you? Did you know there was a threshold? Did you know it was ## over at one time and now it's been reduced to ##? How come the higher speed was ok at first? Did you know that the threshold is different with human traffic enforcers? The City's web site mentions the threshold but doesn't feel it's appropriate to tell you what it is. I will be telling you. It's really one of the worst kept secrets anyway. The point is if your speed is quite high, your options lessen but you could be successful on a guilty with an explanation plea. The lower your speed the greater the chance of winning your case. Take some time during the wait for your trial to learn everything you never wanted to know about photo radar, read a book for instance, go and check out a sitting of traffic court, the public is welcome to attend. Watch how the commissionaires give evidence. Take notes about the process involved in generating the tickets and how they test the device. Watch others defend themselves and think about what you would have asked if you were up there. Attending court also helps you to become comfortable with the surroundings and eliminates the fear and intimidation of the unknown. It will also help when you visualize and practice your cross examination questions. Pay attention to the questions the Crown asks the defendant after they give their version of the event, they will be asking you similar questions. Remember, failing to prepare, prepares you to fail. Now getting back to my picture at the top of the page, the reason I ask where Waldo is? Read this. Ok, now that you've had a good laugh, did you take a minute to print the article and highlight the following; It's not the first time he's received an asleep-at-the-wheel complaint about the commissionaires, but it's the first time there has been anything approaching proof. "We don't expect that from them," Vertone said after he looked at the photos. The commissionaires have duties to perform. They're supposed to be watching the traffic and making corroborating descriptive notes of the vehicle each time the photo radar catches a speeder. Every half hour, they also have to verify the equipment is working properly. Now back to Waldo, where is he/she, I went by three times and each time could not even see a semblance of a head sticking up anywhere. In fact if you play the video below you will see what I mean, I know the quality isn't great. (Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced camera that is more friendly to internet transfer?) Then I even stopped directly across from the van and casually took my pictures. The reason I took the picture wasn't that I couldn't see the person, it's what I saw on the rear window. The day before as I was driving out of the City on McPhillips I noticed the van that day had a black covering over the driver's window. I couldn't see the operator that day either. So if they are covering windows that you can't see in, then what kind of view are they getting at the vehicle approaching the set up. Are they using mirrors? In their evidence they state that they observe the vehicle approaching at a speed visually consistent with the reading that ends up on the radar display. First of all, none of the commissionaires, in my opinion has any where close to the number of years of enforcement experience necessary to be able to accurately visually confirm speeds and if they are restricting their view then it makes their evidence much less credible! There are also several other aspects of their evidence that can be easily scrutinized, I will get further into these in my book Knowledge Is The Ticket. In closing, if anyone else notices any of the mobile radar units with windows covered by roll down shades etc, take a picture and send it to me at photovans@trafficticketguru.com I will create a section and post them as a reference. Stay tuned as well for our Online Ticket Consultations Service, Insiders Club Membership and Trafficticketguru Products and T's.
Back to top of page. 1 comment Wed Apr 01 13:27:43 2009 Bill: Is there an inventory of noted mobile radar locations.Can we start one? In South Winnipeg - Charleswood St James.
The Guru- Yes Bill, there is a complete data base for Winnipeg, completely updated by yours truly. check it out here: http://www.trafficticketguru.com/winnipeg-gps.html Protect Yourself from unfair tickets!
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