Arizona motorists should be hopping mad. Kangaroo Court justice has always been supported by both Redflex and ATS, but that’s not the real story here.
In what looks to be a major scandal brewing, former Paradise Valley Police Chief John Wintersteen has denied to the Associated Press that he was paid by Redflex and Scottsdale’s ATS to file a petition on their behalf. The petition, which shows Wintersteen as the filer, would change Arizona law to subvert due process in favor of the scamera companies. It would eliminate the service of process requirement for photo radar and red light camera tickets. In other words, Arizona motorists wouldn’t have to be served scamera tickets in person to make them valid legally. The petition was filed with the Arizona Supreme Court by the law firm Quarles and Brady.
But of course, Wintersteen just did this out of the goodness of his heart because his love of public safety compelled him to. Right. If he felt so strongly about it, why did he only think of the idea after being presented with the petition by Redflex and ATS officials at the Scamera Summit luncheon described in the AP article? This could get ugly for Wintersteen, Redflex and ATS real quickly.
Something doesn’t add up and the retired Police Chief’s 13 year relationship with both companies is now under the microscope.
Quoted from the AP:
“Wintersteen said he was invited to a lunch with employees of Redflex and its biggest competitor, Scottsdale-based American Traffic Solutions, in late December. He said he mostly talked with them about public education and the photo-enforcement program. He said he has long been friends with many people at both companies, whom he met during his 13 years as police chief in Paradise Valley, a wealthy suburb of Phoenix.
At the end of the lunch, Wintersteen said Redflex employee Cristine Weekes handed him the petition, which had blank spaces for the name, address and phone number of the petitioner. “She said, Take a look at this. What do you think?’” Wintersteen said. “I looked at it that evening and in the morning said, Yeah I’d be really interested in doing this.”
The cameras are coming down and now they may be bringing former police chiefs with them.
CameraFRAUD.com - The Cameras are Coming Down 
Here is a way to stop their latest extortion effort!
http://www.crimefilenews.com/2010/01/arizona-speed-camera-extortion.html
Legal papers served via Facebook.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7785004.stm
Guess where it was?
AUSTRALIA
Those crazy kangaroos!
This stinks to high heaven, and is a perfect example of why profit and law enforcement shouldn’t mix.
Redflex is hurting, and this is the only way they can increase their profit margin.
Nevermind the fact that this would lead to people’s credit ratings being damaged, licenses suspended, jobs lost and job opportunities lost due to lost mail and other glitches in the system. The conseqences for not receiving a ticket in the mail are to dire for citizens to place even more trust on the convulated and complicated bureaucracy that is the photo enforcement system. Yes, the same system that will knowingly send tickets even when driver photos and vehicle information are clearly wrong.
Exactly PRS, there is entirely too much opportunity for them to unceasingly abuse the powers given to them, all of them completely unregulated andwithout any type of oversight or reconciliation. If they want to boost profits then all they have to do is just send out more “complaints” to unknowing victims and rake in the cash.
Or worse yet… have dinner with a few more people of influence and change to rules again.
Let me get this straight – this is a petition like ours, where they’re going to gather 153,000+ signatures to put this up to a vote?
Not quite. This is a petition that changes civil procedure and does not require a vote of the people, legislature, or governor. This will be decided by a panel of Arizona Supreme Court judges after hearing testimony from the scamera companies, individuals, and other that show up at the hearing.
You don’t get it B this does not go through the legislature or require a governor’s signature. This is a court rule change done by the arizona Supreme court. You must fight it at once by calling them not you regular politicians. These judges were appointed by Napolitano!
Thanks for that explanation – and that is serious.
What I don’t get is how they can consider doing that for speeding tickets only? How can they separate out one class of civil violation and serve it via the mail and force all of the others to be served in person?
I hope those Janet-appointed judges realize the long-term legal ramifications of this.
They will when they all get voted out next election.
Remember, the place on the ballot that asks whether judges should be continued in their term, or new judges be appointed.
Will be interesting in November who will still have jobs in the branches of AZ state government.
I hereby propose that CameraFraud endorse Star Valley vice-mayor Randy White for Mayor of Star Valley.
http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2010/jan/15/sv_candidates_almost_agree/
Wow:
“Currently, photo enforcement revenue makes up about 60 percent of the town’s budget.”
Wish that backwoods hillbilly town was in oklahoma:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=050722_Ne_A1_Speed30746
“BIG CABIN — The state Department of Public Safety has declared this Craig County town a “speed trap” for reportedly making 72 percent of its revenue from traffic fines. ”
“”If a town receives more than 50 percent of its revenue from speeding tickets, then it’s considered a speed trap,” said Lt. Pete Norwood, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which will be in charge of monitoring the highway for speeders. ”
” In issuing its Big Cabin ban, the DPS took advantage of legislation — amended last year — that allows the department to investigate communities that gain at least 50 percent of their operating revenue from writing tickets on state or U.S. highways.
If it’s determined that the town is abusing its power, the state can legally prevent that community from enforcing traffic laws on that highway. “
For clarification, ARS 28-1593 says, “A traffic complaint may be served by delivering a copy of the uniform traffic complaint citation to the person charged with the violation or by any means authorized by the rules of civil procedure.”
This is a petition to the court (not the ballot) to change the rules of civil procedure. Currently the rules require personal service.
Sprang v. Petersen Lumber, Inc., 165 Ariz. 257, 262, 789 P.2d 395, 400 (App. 1990); Martin v. Martin, 182 Ariz. 11, 15, 893 P.2d 11, 15 (App. 1994).
These are the current rules:
http://www.served.com/az.asp
we need to get this out to as many people we know
Hey Guys, This is what I am willing to do to help get the word out there. I will be anouncing sometime next week that I am running for governor. During my campaign I will make it very well known as to what these people at Redlex are trying to do. As I will be in contact with many people in this state, I will encourage each and every person to contact the courts to discourage them from making any ruling in favor of personal service by mail. This would by an atrocity and could lead to further implications other than photo radar.
Arizona Governor Proposes Ballot Measure to Save Speed Cameras
Arizona governor believes photo enforcement could be saved by a ballot maneuver
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/30/3021.asp#source
I will make damn sure, if I am elected that these scameras will be put out of our misery. We have seen it before where the people of this state have voted on something and the legislation has turned around and gone against the people, ie payday loans. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that if photo radar is voted out by the people of this state that one of our elected political heroes will turn around and try to have the ballot measure repealed.
Here is a link to the Arizona Supreme Court web-site.
http://azdnn.dnnmax.com/AZSupremeCourtMain/AZCourtRulesMain/CourtRulesForumMain/tabid/89/Default.aspx
You can go here and post your comments on this petition and the court will consider what you write. I haven’t found this case in the records yet, but I’m sure sure it will show up soon. The purpose of this site is to take comments from people like us, who disagree with changes to these rules. You could even post your own proposed changes by starting a new petition but the cut-off date for this year was January 10th.
Great Find!
If nothing else, this would put Process Servers out of business. While I see Redflex and ATS compromising by settling for Certified Mail as opposed to First Class mail, I just can’t see this going through. There’s already a precedent against it, and too many other industries would be affected.
“…a lunch with employees of Redflex and its biggest competitor, Scottsdale-based American Traffic Solutions…”
If employees of two competing companies are having lunch together then there’s the possibility that antitrust violations were committed which the US Dept. of Justice can investigate. Did they engage in price-fixing such as discussing what to charge for contracts or in divying-up cities and counties? Did they discuss business practices or business models? Did they talk about how to keep a third company from entering the market?
Seems to be a conflict of interest considering Redflex is in the process of suing ATS.. My take is that since Photo Enforcement is on death row for Arizona and other cities/states, the 2 companies have become unofficial allies in developing strategies that can help keep them alive long enough to come up with a big plan that could ultimately save them from certain death. Part of that big plan would be to continue brainwashing the public, but at a larger scale such as this article suggests:
Photo-radar system to show nation its local success story
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/crime/325322
Information about the ATS/Redflex/Scamera activity talked about above has been filed with the DOJ and FBI for potential antitrust, RICO, price-fixing, corruption of public officials, and others….in addition to a recommendation to the state for felony charges being levied (as described in another post).
You should definitely contacting news and radio and getting the word out before they get away with this.
A couple of months ago, I posted on this site (which I do regularly) and was bagged out by one of the pro-camera trolls who float around, on the grounds that my own experience as an Australian was irrelevant to the US context.
Here we see that the situation here downunder is all too relevant! Right here is the epicentre of the scamera empire. Now, yes, Australians are far more compliant and will put up with much more sh!t from their government than Americans, but the fact remains that what is happening in Arizona is EXACTLY what has occurred over time in our little southern gulag.
We’re a predictor of the crap that Redflex will try to serve you up in what is still (thank God!) the Land of the Free. For example, the cops here successfully had the speed limit tolerance reduced to 3 km/h (that’s less the 2 mph) in 2003. I reckon that’s the next play the scamera companies will try to push through your legislatures.
Oh, and as for utterly unethical police chiefs, I think we have the king of them right here in Victoria. Our Deputy Commish for traffic, the absolute champion of severe penalties for 1 or 2 mph over the limit was busted 10 km/h over the limit. Not only did they cover the conviction up (on the grounds it would jeopardise Christmas time “road safety” campaigns) but the creep had the nerve not to resign!!!
Beware America! The Australian experience is not irrelevant. It’s coming to a jurisdiction near you!!
Redflex is based in Australia so why would your country be irrelevant? But we also monitor the camera movement all across the globe because both victories and defeats could affect us one way or another. We know that as long as the scamera corporations and our governments are making money off of photo enforcement, there will be corruption. They’ve already proven this. As soon as some of our leaders pull their heads out of the ground and learn the true meanings of our constitution, perhaps they’ll come to realize that the entire system of photo enforcement is illegal and needs to come down. Trust me, we DON’T want to follow in the footsteps of Australia and the UK.
Thanks, mate! I think the troll concerned was short on logic so reverted to abuse. The sad part is that this speed kills nonsense is costing lives, as we both know.
And the answer is so glaringly obvious. Training. Having recently driven on the excellent US interstate system and in and around DC, the qualitative difference between American drivers and Australians is very apparent. Americans (in general) handle their cars better, are more courteous, and drive to conditions demonstrably better than Australians. (I have taken a “straw poll” and most people here agree with that assessment.)
The fact that so many American jurisdictions have formal driver training in schools is very evident and, I am sure, saves lives.
Ahh, but training programs cost money, and scameras yield an avalanche of $$$.
Here is a link to the Arizona Supreme court where you can find the Redflex/Wintersteen petition. I encourage everyone who is comfortable putting together a legally competent response to make one there.
http://azdnn.dnnmax.com/AZSupremeCourtMain/AZCourtRulesMain/CourtRulesForumMain/CourtRulesForum/tabid/91/forumid/2/postid/1066/view/topic/Default.aspx