Guilty! And You Didn’t Even Know It

An injustice to one is an injustice to all

Your license could be suspended and you may not even know it. In yet another colossal failure of photo enforcement, you may have been cited with a traffic citation and never been notified. Since you didn’t pay the ticket you didn’t know about, some judge suspended your license when you didn’t show up to court for the hearing you didn’t know about.

This is an increasing epidemic in they city of Scottsdale, where photo enforcement has been in place for years.

This week, KPHO reports on Elizabeth Vaughan, who recently lost a job because a background check revealed a suspended license due to a photo radar ticket from 10 years ago that she was never notified of.

On September 29, 2009 AZFamily’s 3 on your side segment reported that Patty Parker found out that her license was suspended when Phoenix police pulled her over and told her that her license was suspended. Research revealed that a judge suspended her license after Patty failed to respond to 4 mailed tickets that she never received, despite no Declaration of Service ever being filed.

On September 5, 2009 KPHO reported on Ken Lind, whose license was suspended after he was ticketed in April 2000 without his knowledge and without being served. Lind has already spent hundreds of dollars getting his record cleansed and license reinstated.

Like a broken record, Scottsdale spokesman never seem to have an explanation. Officials insist that the purpose of photo enforcement is safety. But if people are never notified, how is it supposed to have any effect on how people drive? The biggest fallacy associated with photo enforcement is the belief that notifying people weeks, months, or years after they’ve violated a law will have an effect on their habits and behavior.

More importantly, is this how the people of Scottsdale and surrounding communities wish to be governed? Is unknowingly suspending people’s licenses really going to be effective at keeping our roads safe? Is this the burden we wish ourselves and others to suffer just so cities can make a few extra million dollars? The people of Scottsdale and its visitors deserve better. Cops, not cameras!

ATS Acquires Steaming Pile of Crap

An unidentified ATS employee is seen scooping up the remains of failed photo radar vendor Nestor Traffic Systems on Sep 9, 2009

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. –(BS Wire)–

American Traffic Solutions, Inc. (ATS), the second largest provider of automated ticketing and extortion systems in North America, announced the acquisition of Nestor Traffic Systems, otherwise known as a steaming pile of crap.

ATS acquired what was left of Nestor`s fragile remains and proceeded to forcibly violate the failed company in a cheap hotel room according to company spokesdrone Josh Weiss, who also happened to be a participant in the maltreatment.

“We picked up this cheap whore for a song on the streets of Los Angeles, one of the communities she often flashes,” said Weiss. “We couldn’t resist when we saw how she could work the streets.”

Nestor lived a troubled life, often being abused at the hands of her pimps who took “lavish salaries and bonus packages” while communities contracted with the company suffered.

“We found that Nestor’s pimps believed in a philosophy that was congruent with that of our primary investor, Goldman Sachs,” said James Tuton, CEO of ATS. “Recessions and taxpayer bailouts are no reason to cancel excessive compensation packages.”

As is often the case for victims of abuse, Nestor herself lived a life of crime, surviving primarily by stealing from unsuspecting drivers.

CameraFRAUD.com Event: Wed, Oct 29th

WHAT: Sign Wave / Demonstration
WHEN: Wed, Oct 29th @ 4:30 PM
WHERE: Scottsdale Rd & McDowell Rd, Scottsdale AZ

Bring a sign (or use one of ours), or drive by and show your support!

What’s it like? See video from previous sign wave, courtesy KTVK-TV 3

RSVP Here…

Red Means Go With New Signal In Scottsdale

In their never-ending quest to be somehow relevant and “cool,” Scottsdale has introduced a new pedestrian signal. The system, which has no green lamp and stays dark when not being utilized, uses a flashing red to indicate to motor traffic that it’s safe to go:

When the light starts flashing yellow, slow down. When it turns solid yellow, prepare to stop. When it turns solid red, stop. When the light converts to flashing red, check that pedestrians are clear and proceed when it is safe to do so.

The use of a flashing yellow that is then followed by a solid yellow is a phenomenal idea that should be expanded to all signals. However, the lack of a selective green signal might make some think the light is inoperable… or not know that the signal actually exists.

Worse yet is the idea of using a flashing red to indicate “proceed with caution,” the most obvious reason why being that cities and the state have used the “Red Means Stop” advertising program for many years now.

More troubling is how many traditional signal lamps will flicker if they’re about to burn out, to indicate to city workers that the lamp needs replacing. If someone sees a flickering red at Thomas and Scottsdale, are they going to ram though it at 45Mph?

Smile: You’re on CameraFRAUD.com

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words— (or, in Scott$dale’s case, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year)

CameraFRAUD.com turned the tables this past Thursday in Scottsdale by bringing along a high-powered camera of our own. To the right is your typical ATS scam-van: illegally parked, engine running (wasting resources), and recording data about all passing vehicles.

On the left, you will see ATS van operator and alleged fraud co-conspirator Daniel P. Coon… at least according to his open Dell laptop.

Also pictured on-screen: the van’s location, vehicle count, measured 85th percentile, as well as system software’s ironically-appropriate name: Axsis (click picture to enlarge).

For some strange reason, Mr. Coon didn’t invite us into the van for afternoon tea and biscuits.

Instead, he tried to bundle himself up in the van by putting reflective material in the windows (pictured, right), and immediately got on his cell phone—presumably to call his supervisor at the Death Star to get new instructions.

If only there were some sort of law preventing high-powered cameras from taking photographs of unsuspecting people inside their vehicles… Oh, wait.