ATS’ Dirty Corporate Family

Just a friendly update on American Traffic Solutions and their behind-the-scenes investor which controls two of the Scottsdale firm’s seven seat board of directors.

While ATS is busy draining local economies with snake oil “solutions” to traffic violations, their corporate overlord Goldman Sachs stands accused of heinous acts of profit-driven murder.

In a bombshell editorial from The Independent earlier this month,  Johann Hari exposes the conglomerate, which maintains a significant interest in ATS:

By now, you probably think your opinion of Goldman Sachs and its swarm of Wall Street allies has rock-bottomed at raw loathing. You’re wrong. There’s more. It turns out that the most destructive of all their recent acts has barely been discussed at all. This is the story of how [Goldman and others] have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world.

“My children stopped growing,” a woman my age called Abiba Getaneh, told me. “I felt like battery acid had been poured into my stomach as I starved.

Now THAT’s a personal ad: “Single lonely corporation enjoys long walks on the beach and acts of starvation-caused genocide. Quirky side includes voyeurism and government-sanctioned extortion with our family members, Jim and Adam Tuton. Hobbies include selling BP stock right before the largest enviromental disaster in US history. Actually, scratch that long walk on the beach…

In more positive(?) news, Goldman Sachs was ordered today to pay $550 million to settle SEC allegations of widespread financial fraud.

Goldman Sachs and American Traffic Solutions: ideal corporations to immeasurably mingle with police and government operations? What could possibly go wrong?

(Note: We invite someone from ATS to email us a statement in response to this article and we’ll be happy to post it. Otherwise, we’ll accept the silence as agreement.)

Texas Traffic Cam Bribery Allegations Surface

Don’t ever forget: It’s always about the money. From theNewspaper:

“An ethical storm […] broke around state Representative Linda Harper-Brown (R-Irving) last month… Harper-Brown, a Transportation Committee member, accepted unreported gratuities from a traffic camera firm in return for playing the decisive role in establishing the automated ticketing industry in the Lone Star State.”

A group has now formally filed corruption charges against the state rep:

[The group] filed corruption charges with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and the US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas after it learned that Harper-Brown had been driving luxury vehicles paid for by a firm that tried to land lucrative traffic camera contracts. Harper-Brown drives a black 2010 Mercedes E550 sedan with official state license plates, a fact confirmed on video by WFAA-TV in Dallas. Paradigm Traffic Systems and Durable Specialties, firms owned by Jeffrey C. Bryan, provided another E-Class and a 2004 Chevy Tahoe to Harper-Brown and her husband William Brown.”

VA Politicians Hide Their Support of Deadly Cams

Falls Church City Council

Like most Virginia cities looking to operate photo enforcement programs, Falls Church doesn’t want the public to know what’s happening. Since August, the city has been holding quiet negotiations with private companies interested in setting up a red light camera program for profit. The first and only public mention of the city’s machinations appeared in a tiny mention today in the equally tiny Falls Church News-Press. It announced that the city council already approved a photo ticketing contract with American Traffic Solutions.

Falls Church is following in the footsteps of Fairfax City which earlier this year held city council deliberations on red light cameras in secret before announcing their decision to an open meeting — at 1 a.m., long after the public had departed.

Why the secrecy, you might ask? Because Falls Church has had red light cameras before, and the results are documented. The city council knows its claims of “safety” have been debunked by no less an authority than the Virginia Department of Transportation, which found in Falls Church:

• A 136% increase in rear-end collisions

• A 79% increase in injury accidents

• Overall, accidents increased 38%

See the results yourself.

If residents knew what was happening, they would be outraged. Despite the phony surveys cooked up by the ticket profiteers,  politicans realize that they can only get away with the scam while the public isn’t watching. No photo enforcement program has ever survived a public referendum.

So let Falls Church know what you think. Contact information is provided after the jump. The city memo for the contract is available here: Falls Church Contract memo

Redflex, ATS Flashes Endanger Motorists

In addition to the numerous legal, ethical, constitutional, and technological issues with automated ticketing deployments, perhaps one of the most disturbing examples of unintended consequences with photo enforcement has yet to be covered by this website.

CameraFRAUD has received numerous emails from Veterans who express varied levels of concern over the use of flash units that are almost universally deployed with Redflex and American Traffic Solutions’ traffic cameras. Many of these individuals wanted to tell someone “their story” but weren’t comfortable enough with the information being published publicly.

With the sender’s permission, we are publishing the following email. The author’s identity and some details have been removed or changed to respect his privacy.

I can’t believe that I am the only Veteran who is having stress problems with these devices. Day or night the flash is similar to muzzle flashes, or an explosive device without the big bang.

If 2 or 3 vehicles go through one of these points as a group there are multiple flashes, and it is enough to send the adrenalin pumping – similar to a roadside ambush, especially the ones that are partially hidden in the oleanders, etc. One of these days someone is going to be having a bad day, and go into escape & evasion (E&E) mode, or just pull out the cannon and level the offender.  […]

The first radar van I encountered appeared to be a car with a flat on the side of the road,  Just before I go to it the guy opened the back of the station wagon […] and there was the antenna and the supporting equipment.  I was on my way to (city name removed), and don’t remember a thing about the trip until I was going through (city name removed) ! […]

I have never set off one of the devices, and have not had a traffic citation in over 35 years. These things still just give me the willies!  They serve no other purpose than revenue enhancement. Only a corrupt government would employ such tactics.  If they are worried about speed, require speed skill levels for driving.  That is where most of the problem is – unskilled drivers operating outside of their competency range…

It’s not just CameraFRAUD that questions the wisdom of flashing powerful strobe lights at passing motorists. Just ask those who hold the patent rights to the technology:

“The use of flash illumination may be detrimental at night to oncoming traffic and has the potential to cause temporary driver blindness and consequent safety risks as well as preventing authorities from deploying systems covertly.”

If you are a Veteran or other party that may have a medically-related issue to bright strobe lights, we would like to hear from you.

Heil Heiler? Redflex Flack Part Of Brewer Team

Jan Brewer, the anticipated incoming Arizona governor, has selected Jay Heiler to act as her Deputy Director of Transition for Personnel. Just who is “Jay Heiler”? Director of Government Affairs for Redflex. Take a look for yourself from page 406 of Redflex’s contract with DPS. More on this story to follow…