Redflex and American Traffic Solutions Dirty Scheme for “Clean” Elections

There has been a lot of whining down at the state capitol in the last two weeks as anti-photo radar/red light camera activists have applied serious pressure on legislators to cosponsor and support HB 2579.

They’ve used every excuse in the book and here are some highlights:

“I don’t cosponsor any bills, that’s just my policy.”

“It doesn’t matter if a bill has cosponsors and you should leave it up to the bill sponsor to contact them.”

“If I cosponsor this bill, another legislator who doesn’t like me might kill the bill to even the score.”

“I really wanted to cosponsor, but I just couldn’t find the time to go over and sign my name on it before it was filed.”

“You’ve missed some (arbitrary or made up) deadline and I’m no longer allowed to sign on.”

“All the phone calls and emails are a turn off and you should really back off before you upset your reps and they vote against your bill.”

These are what we call excuses and poor ones at that.

The real deal is that your legislature is mostly bought and paid for by photo ticket money that funds their campaigns.

From WarOnDriving.com

The Redflex scandal in Chicago isn’t going away, any time soon. Politicians who may or may not be in bed with the camera vendor in other cities and states may claim that Chicago’s corruption doesn’t apply elsewhere.

Anyone using this excuse is either lying, ignorant or both.

Let’s take the entire state of Arizona as an example. More than 10 municipalities, such as Phoenix, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Tucson, Chandler, Prescott Valley, Surprise, etc still use a combination of speed or red light cameras. Despite the fact that photo tickets sent by mail are not legally binding in Arizona, millions of dollars in fines are still collected.

10% of that money goes into a fund ironically called “clean elections,” which provides public funding to political campaigns, like members of the Arizona Senate and House of Representatives. These folks, not coincidentally, are responsible for allowing photo radar and red light cameras to litter the roads and scam Arizona motorists.

What’s also NOT a coincidence is that 80% of candidates for Arizona Legislature use “clean” election money to fund their campaigns. If you connect the dots, that means that Redflex and American Traffic Solutions fund their operation and basically own them. If a bill (currently HB 2579) to ban them passes, most of that clean election money will instantly vanish. The political gravy train would stop dead in its tracks and there would be quite a few state senators and reps scrambling to find a way to fund re-election in 2014.

Those are the hard facts and they’re undeniable. Chicago-style corruption with backdoor payola is still likely to be going on, but the scheme in Arizona is right there in plain sight.

[CONTINUE STORY]

HB 2579 Goes to Arizona House of Reps Transportation Committee on 2/21

From the CameraFRAUD meetup group:

Sunday, February 17, 2013 to Thursday, February 21, 2013, 7:00 AM

There’s no way to tell which order the chairman (Karen Fann) will schedule it, but the info is available here – [link]

This bill would make using ANY unmanned devices to issue traffic citations and fines illegal in the state of Arizona. That would mean all of Redflex and ATS’s scameras would come down and be shipped out to another state that still puts up with this unconstitutional racketeering.The best way you as an individual can help would be to swing by the House of Reps building at 1700 W Washington in Phoenix, sign into their system and register as a supporter of this bill. We understand that many of you couldn’t fit that into your schedules, so there’s another option…

The next best thing you could do is send a friendly email to every member of the transportation committee before Thursday and let them know why you personally want these cameras off your streets and traffic lights. They want to hear from you!

Spread the word far and wide that a bill to ban the scameras is once again making its way through Arizona Legislature. We’ve lost by just one vote the last two years, so any help we get could push us over the top this year!

Copy/paste the list below or email each individually:

kfann@azleg.gov, rgray@azleg.gov, vsteele@azleg.gov, bbarton@azleg.gov, sborrelli@azleg.gov, jescamilla@azleg.gov

The Photo Radar Prohibition Bill (HB 2579) will be voted on in the Arizona House of Reps Transportation Committee on Thursday February 21st.

BREAKING: Redflex Cameras in Tempe are Coming Down

Redflex Scamera in Tempe, soon to be scrap metal.

Redflex just found out what happens when you sue your own client (City of Tempe) to squeeze as many dollars as possible out of them.

As of July 19th, Redflex red light, photo radar and mobile scameras will be shut off and begin collecting dust until they’re ripped out. This comes almost exactly one year after the end of the extremely unpopular Redflex freeway photo radar program with Arizona DPS.

[read more]

Legislature Passes a Bill to Raise Photo Tickets by $13

Can anyone tell members of the Arizona House and Senate were anxious to “take their ball and go home?” After burning the midnight oil all the way until 5:30 am today, dozens of bills were passed in a flurry.

One of the bills would raise photo tickets by $13, for those who have been personally served. SB1398, as it now appears, would do just that, but who knows what it will say when the final version is updated.

We can be certain about one thing, in the first legislative session, Arizona passed exactly zero bills that would curb or completely eliminate photo radar and red light cameras from our roads and intersections. And nobody is surprised.

Check back later for more details on what this bill actually says when someone gets around to posting the final version and if the Gov, Jan Brewer, decides not to veto it.

Arizona’s Most Toxic Assets: Redflex and ATS

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington

To: Arizona State Senators and Representatives
From: CameraFRAUD
2/25/2011

Two of the largest automated ticketing vendors on the planet have substantial roots within the State of Arizona. Combined, these corporations employ many Arizonans and generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenue each day.

And there’s never been a better time to finally say goodbye.

Photo ticketing schemes extract enormous amounts of cash from the local economies in which they pretend to serve. Instead of this money staying within our community, Redflex and American Traffic Solutions virtually launder these stolen funds through pseudo-local offices… and back to their respective faceless investment banks.

In one corner, American Traffic Solutions sounds downright patriotic in name. Their surveillance cameras even boast a sticker as being “Made in the USA.” Don’t let the smoke and mirrors fool you though: ATS is a pawn of the massively-corrupt investment firm and former bailout recipient Goldman Sachs.

In the other corner, Redflex is being purchased by Macquarie Ltd and the Carlyle Group, two firms which are equally disinterested in the well-being of Arizonans. These faceless monsters only care about profits, and how every last dime can be extracted from their voiceless victims.

Just like the large, faceless investment banks which helped contribute to our current national recession, ticketing vendors Redflex and ATS also create local booms and busts within local municipalities. Unfortunately, the local elected “leaders” are asleep at the wheel, and aren’t paying attention to this modern game of “Three Cup Shuffle.”

Cities and towns are lured in by the prospect of “free money,” usually to the chipper reminder that such ticketing programs are “violator funded.” Contracts are haphazardly entered into, cameras go up, and the money starts to pour in. But as with any scam, there’s always a catch. Programs which start out profitable usually end up in the red, as is the case with the City of Mesa’s beleaguered relationship with ATS.

Citizens revolt, avoid areas with overzealous enforcement, or simply grow savvy to methods to avoid detection. Unintended consequences include a population that has become savvy to avoiding process service, making a mockery of the supposed “rule of law.” Increases in yellow light timing can and have destroyed these profitable schemes, sometimes incurring the wrath of these money-sucking vampire vendors.

Attempts to cancel contracts administratively are met with threats of lawsuits. Cities actually forced to end their contracts due to citizen’s ballot initiatives have been sued by these vendors, proving that there truly is no honor among thieves once the honey pot runs dry.

When Goldman Sachs dumped $70 million worth of mismanaged assets in 2006-2007, they were called “toxic.” Then Goldman conned its way into receiving $12.9 billion in TARP funds through AIG, while turning around and handing out $14 billion in executive bonuses.

Now, it’s Arizona’s turn to drop two toxic “assets” once and for all: the physical presence of American Traffic Solutions and Redflex within the Grand Canyon State.

DPS, GPS and Automated Apologies in Las Cruces

Tomtom, makers of GPS systems that warn motorists of road conditions including hazards like speed and red light cameras recently inquired with CameraFRAUD about the status of the freeway scameras. Their systems still warn of the presence of the (now dismantled) Redflex spy camera ring. The reason? DPS is still in denial that their cash cow is now kaput and haven’t eliminated the page from their website with the locations.

We set Tomtom straight and they will happily remove the warnings in the coming days.

In the city of Las Cruces, NM, they have received so many angry phone calls about their photo ticketing program that they had to set up an automated scamera apology line to deflect some of the inquiries. Missing from their “FAQ’s” is why the city still insists on running the program even though it is making their intersections more dangerous and accident numbers are increasing. Maybe they’re hoping that nasty little truth will be swept under the rug.

Bombshell: ‘Countless’ Served Tickets May Be Invalid

CameraFRAUD Demands FBI Investigation
Media Inquiries: media@camerafraud.com

Attorney and CameraFRAUD member Michael Kielsky has uncovered potentially damning information regarding photo enforcement process service within Arizona.

The revelation? Widespread, illegal certificates of service, admittedly completed by office workers instead of the actual server.

Developing…

Just got back from court with another Photo Radar case win — but how I won “shocked” even me.

The case was set for a process server hearing, and the process server was there, seemed to remember the service, and otherwise was a credible witness, leaving me little room to challenge the service.

I then asked if he had notes from the day of service, which he confirmed, and I asked if I could see them. I compared his notes to the certificate of service, and saw that some of the demographic specifics were off (the height was 5″ off, the age was specific instead of the range in the notes, the weight was off by 5 lbs.).

I then asked him about the differences (in that, more than anything else, the height seemed significant).

Bombshell alert:

He answered that he sends his notes in to the process service office, and then someone there fills out the certificate of service with all the details, and adds a digitized image of his signature, and the files it.

My jaw hit the desk. I asked him to confirm that the certificate was completed from his notes, and that he did not review it before it was signed, under penalty of perjury, with his digitized signature, and he confirmed, and said that’s the way they always do it, in 10’s of thousands of cases.

I argued to the judge that I had no issue with the digitized signature, but that the certificate of service was void, as it was completed and signed without his review, and it did not accurately reflect his own notes regarding the service.

The judge questioned the process server some more about this process, and, among other things, he admitted, that, well yes, for eviction service, that’s not how they do it, but for photo radar they do.

Case dismissed.

UPDATE: The FBI is the agency assigned to investigate public and judicial fraud. Their contact information is as follows. We encourage any reader who feels they may be a victim of false service to immediately file a report.

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Special Agent Nathan T. Gray
201 East Indianola Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85012
Phone: (602) 279-5511
Fax: (602) 650-3204
E-mail: phoenix@ic.fbi.gov

Photo Unit Cop Caught Forging Documents

Geoffrey Jacobs (Photo: New Times)

A former officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s now-defunct Redflex “photo enforcement unit” was allegedly caught forging documents and using “state” resources — a DPS airplane — to stalk an ex girlfriend.

According to AZCentral, “[Geoffrey] Jacobs wrote a fake obituary regarding another ex-girlfriend and sent it to Hawaiian Airlines, along with a letter detailing how Jacobs was trying to cope with the “huge loss” of his fiancee. The letter was sent so Jacobs could transfer his ex-girlfriend’s ticket to another woman…”

If this officer was corrupt enough to forge documents for an airline ticket change, did any of the members of the public stand a chance when their citations were in his hands?

But wait, there’s more… This one’s for the “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about” crowd:

He also was found to have abused DPS resources when he flew a state-owned plane over the neighborhood where he believed an ex-girlfriend lived in an attempt to locate her new home.

And who better to help run the accident-increasing photo enforcement scheme than an officer who had great first-hand experience causing accidents:

Jacobs joined DPS in late 2002. Less than one year later, he was served with his first letter of reprimand for an October 2003 wreck in Tucson. The next year, Jacobs was in another wreck and lost eight hours of vacation pay.

Jacobs, according to the New Times, “was the trooper who arrested Republican Party Executive Director Brett Mecum in May 2009 for criminal speeding. “

Now Jacobs is redefining irony, by suing the state over his dismissal. His claim? “…Defamation and violation of privacy and constitutional rights. “

Perhaps one would be more compassionate for the troubled cop if he didn’t work in a police unit that defamed and violated privacy and constitutional rights on an automated level.

With forgery, stalker-like surveillance, and dangerous driving supposedly under his belt, he would fit in well with the corporate criminal culture at Redflex Group.

(Should a full investigation into this officer’s role in the photo enforcement unit be conducted by AZDPS? Sound off in the comments section)

Another One For The “Each Ticket is Reviewed by an Officer” Folder

In photo enforcement programs across the country, the claims continue to be made that “each violation is reviewed by an officer” before a ticket is mailed. The reality is that violations are either NOT reviewed by officers or the standards of evidence are much lower than anyone would imagine. In many cases, the camera companies and the municipalities are just eager to bring in a check so they send out a ticket regardless of the consequences to the innocent.

Take this recent AZ DPS photo ticket, for example, where it is not even possible to distinguish any features of the driver whatsoever (click on photo to enlarge). This didn’t stop Redflex from mailing the bogus ticket in the hopes that someone who didn’t know better would help them boost their profit margins.

According to the IIHS, the driver of the vehicle is NOT the owner of the vehicle over 28% of the time, which means that photo enforcement has a built-in 28% identify error rate even before we consider equipment malfunctions, corporate-owned vehicles, missing/ineligible plates, and system and processing errors.

Imagine for a moment what this country’s founders would say about a law enforcement system with a built-in error rate greater than 1 in 4 where the recipient must prove that he wasn’t driving in order to be found innocent. Imagine if you would re-elect a local sheriff if their department arrested the wrong person over 28% of the time. When did Arizona decide that a law enforcement system that heavily burdens the innocent is what we want?

Oh that’s right, the people or Arizona have never voted on this issue! Jan Brewer: Put photo enforcement on the ballot!

DPS scameras still hiding in the shadows

One of our CameraFraud volunteers recently captured the below photo showing 2 DPS scamera vans hiding on a freeway, lurking in the shadows underneath an overpass.

This just goes to show that Arizona DPS continues to ignore recommendations issued by ASU Professor Simon Washington Ph. D. (and others), which state in part:

“the placement of cameras in close proximity to high information load locations (e.g., on- and off-ramps, underpasses, billboards, weaving sections, directional signs, etc.) should be avoided.”

“Placement of cameras in sight-restricted locations should be avoided.”

Of course, if it’s not about safety and all about the money, why would they listen to some silly suggestions comprehensive analysis from an ASU professor and colleagues?

Perhaps DPS is trying to rake in as much revenue as possible before they are forced to abandon the scamera game.

If you’d like to read more, we previously covered the ASU study in the following articles:
DPS vs. Prof.: At Odds Over Cam Locations
DPS and Redflex: No Regard for Human Life

Thanks to Stacey for capturing the photo used above.