LA Red Light Ticket Cameras Have Quotas. No, Really.
Published: September 9th, 2008
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The Newspaper does it again, exposing the hidden cash grab behind the blogger’s bugaboo: red light cameras. “In 2000 the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Agency signed a $3,497,960 contract with a Dallas-based firm, now known as Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), to issue pricey photo citations at seventeen railroad crossings. The county further ordered the company to keep a steady flow of tickets, or face corrective action… The contract sets as the baseline that the company must issue 25 tickets for every 100 alleged violations recorded by the machine. These recordings include any number of situations where either no real offense took place, or the driver cannot be positively identified — as required under California law. Nonetheless, if the total number of citations mailed falls under 25 per 100, the corrective steps must be taken to boost the number of citations mailed. In effect, this provides a direct incentive to the contractor to issue tickets regardless of whether the machine properly captured a true violation. There is no penalty under state law for a contractor to guess, for example, a license plate number when the image is unreadable.” As I don’t want to be responsible for mass blood boiling, I won’t tell you about the memo from a Roseville police chief telling his pencil pushers how to hide the hypocrisy. Suffice it to say, the safety argument doesn’t seem to be anyone’s primary concern in all this.
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hansbos> As a motorcyclist (90% summer driving)/cager (10% summer driver), I'd like to see traffic enforcement against bicyclists. I have almost killed 5-6 bicyclists in 4 months (and I'm a VERY light driver.....car, 3-4k miles per year, motorcycle ~ 2k) because they ignore all traffic signs & regulations. This includes, but is not limited too: 1) Running stop signs. 2) Running red lights. 3) Riding on the wrong side of the street. 4) Listening to headphones/not paying attention. I almost hit one guy who was listening to his ipod while driving on the wrong side of the street running a red light! I stopped & he never saw me.. Waiting for the bus the other day, I counted how many bicyclists slowed down (not stopped) for the stop sign at my bus stop and it was 1 in 6. Just because it's their fault when I hit & kill them won't make me feel any better when it actually happens.
I think they should use the dunking technigue used in the 1600s to identify witches in Salem MA... Dunk 'em in water... if they drown, they're innocent, if they live they're guilty. How have we lost so much control of our society?