Speed cameras have emerged as a top political issue in the province of Manitoba, Canada. The ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) is standing by its controversial decision last week against issuing refunds for motorists who were issued speed camera tickets in so-called highway work zones when no workers were present. In January, a court declared that such tickets violated the law (view opinion), but the NDP maintains that payment of a ticket is an admission of guilt. The opposition parties are making the most of the situation.
New York state’s highest court ruled Tuesday that police can’t use GPS technology to track criminal suspects without a warrant in a decision at least one Long Island law enforcement official said would add an unnecessary step in an investigation. A spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said she disagreed with the decision of the state Court of Appeals, which ruled 4-3 that satellite tracking devices violate the rights of suspects unless authorized by a judge. But the ruling, in a case stemming from an upstate robbery investigation, won’t compromise current investigations in Nassau involving GPS devices, spokesman Eric Phillips said.
Last Wednesday, Lee Engineering presented a detailed report to the Red Light Camera Citizen Advisory Committee which had formed in compliance with a 2007 law designed to force officials to think twice before rushing to activate cameras during a budget crunch. The study suggested that engineering improvements might even make cameras unnecessary at those two locations. “Based on crash and violation data,” the study stated, “the report identifies only two approaches that would warrant consideration of photo enforcement in the event that implementation of physical and signal timing changes are unsuccessful at reducing red light running.”
The Alabama state legislature this week sent a bill authorizing Montgomery’s use of red light cameras to Governor Bob Riley (R) for his signature. The city has been using automated ticketing machines since May 2008, but the local measure authored by state Senator Larry Dixon (R-Montgomery) and state Representative David Grimes (R-Montgomery) is designed to retroactively protect the city from any lawsuit challenging the legality of the first $1 million worth of tickets already issued without authorization. “The city, by Ordinance No. 10-2007, hereby validated ab initio, adopted the procedures authorized by this act,” Senate Bill 59 declares.
The Texas House of Representatives voted on Friday to bring an end to the use of red light cameras in the state. During consideration of a bill to reauthorize the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), members debated over 180 amendments to the underlying legislation. Amendment Number 102 added a sunset clause to state approval for the use of automated ticketing machines. This provision passed by a vote of 107-36 and the underlying TxDOT reauthorization measure was adopted on a voice vote.
Police in Wisconsin need no warrant to electronically track the moves of motorists not suspected of any crime, according to a ruling handed down yesterday by the state court of appeals. The decision came as a three-judge panel unanimously declined to overturn the stalking conviction of Michael A. Sveum that had been based largely on evidence provided by a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking device secretly installed on Sveum’s car while it was parked on his private driveway.
Police in West Virginia may no longer issue tickets to motorists for failure to signal without also showing another vehicle may have been affected by the maneuver, according to a ruling issued Monday by the state supreme court. Justices took up the issue in the context of a June 25, 2006, traffic stop in which West Virginia State Trooper C.T. Kessel pulled over Chad R. Clower on US-50 in the city of Romney. According to Kessel, the road was deserted that night when he saw Clower’s car two full city blocks ahead. After Clower made a right-hand turn without signaling, Kessel pounced. At the time, Clower was neither speeding nor weaving and Kessel had noted nothing unusual about the man’s driving beyond the lack of a signal. In the course of the stop, however, Kessel noticed that Clower’s eyes were “glassy” and he immediately suspected the man had been driving under the influence of alcohol.
Illinois State Police troopers seized a high-performance muscle car and set it aside for the personal use of an influential police official. The Associated Press reported that a suspected drunk driver in a 2006 Dodge Charger SRT-8 was pulled over in January 2007. The troopers used a state seizure law to confiscate the vehicle. Once the paperwork was complete, the 425-horsepower vehicle—as-new base price of $38K—was handed over for the personal use of Ron Cooley, 56, the Executive Director of the Illinois State Police Merit Board. Taxpayers also pick up the fuel tab for gas-guzzling 6.1-liter V-8 as he drives to and from work each day and on various business trips.
When Dale Lee Underdahl and Timothy Arlen Brunner were both charged with DUI in separate cases in 2006 and 2007, they sought access to the source code for the Intoxilyzer 5000EN. Minnesota state officials resisted the defendants’ requests, claiming the software controlling the device was not relevant and, in any case, it was private information under the sole control of the machine’s manufacturer, CMI Inc. CMI claimed the information was a “trade secret” and refused a district court order to produce the code. This led to the prospect that the charges against Underdahl and Brunner would be dismissed for lack of evidence. So before this could happen, the state asked the court of appeals to strike down both discovery requests. The appeals court agreed with the state. The Minnesota supreme court found fault with the reasoning of the appeals court and split the difference.
Officials representing Livingston Parish, Louisiana have canceled speeding tickets for all motorists caught in a notorious speed camera trap on Interstate 12. After numerous public complaints, officials were forced to admit 2488 citations were unfairly issued between January 26 and February 5, according to the Baton Rouge Business Report. Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia has operated the speed camera van on the parish’s behalf since January. As a productivity incentive, the company pockets $33 for every ticket it issues. Redflex found the most profitable position was around mile marker 15 on I-12 where the speed limit drops from 70 MPH to 60. Because there is no perceptible change in the freeway at the location, those who missed or ignored the sign became the targets for an instant ticket.
Since their installation in December 2007, red light cameras in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have failed to decrease the number of collisions at the locations where they are used. The UK-owned firm LaserCraft operates automated ticketing machines at six city intersections, splitting the revenue generated with the city. Officials claim the two primary objectives of the program are saving lives and decreasing the number of accidents, injuries and fatalities caused by speeding and red light running. Instead of a decrease, the total number of accidents at these locations increased six percent from 143 to 152, according to the city’s own data. At most of the locations, there was little or no change in accident frequency following the installation of cameras. The only significant change was seen at Fourth Avenue and East 23rd Street where ten accidents in 2007 jumped sixty percent to sixteen in 2008.
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) dedicated last week to “Work Zone Safety Awareness” so that it could begin redeploying speed cameras on freeways. Bright orange publicity signs told motorists to “Give ’em a Brake” while fifty-six bright orange highway worker jackets hung from WSDOT offices as a reminder of the number of highway workers who have died since 1950. “The men and women who work on our state and local highways are often working in and near traffic, and we want everyone to go home to their loved ones at the end of their work day,” WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond said in a statement. According to WSDOT’s own statistics, however, they do go home safely each night.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (D) is expected to sign into law recently passed legislation authorizing a massive expansion in the use of speed cameras throughout the state. The measure is the culmination of a coordinated effort by photo enforcement companies, their lobbying firms and the insurance industry to sway the opinions of key legislators. TheNewspaper reviewed state records over the past ten years and found that parties with a direct financial interest in automated ticketing showered members of the Maryland General Assembly and the governor with $707,725 in gifts and campaign cash.
The Tennessee state Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday voted 9-0 to authorize the use of speed cameras in so-called “work zones” on interstate highways. The vote was unusual in that state Senator Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) presented his legislation as if it would prohibit the use of speed cameras, even though the actual legislative text has the opposite effect. “The amendment basically just says surveillance cameras shall not be permitted on federal interstate highways,” Burchett explained to the committee. “Except for department of transportation designated work zones.”
On February 3, the KTVT-TV evening news covered the fight brewing in Duncanville, Texas over the use of red light cameras. Reporter Stephanie Lucero attempted to balance her piece about drivers trapped at the notorious intersection of Danieldale Road and US 67 by speaking first with a local businessman who claimed personal experience about how the traffic cameras installed there made the city safer. “There has been a noticeable difference in the safety of this intersection since they put them in, so I, for one, like them,” Steve Madison told KTVT.
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