Another Arizona city is taking down their unpopular automated ticketing camera system.
This time it’s the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, which has a population of more than 400,000 residents. American Traffic Solutions has been issuing scamera tickets in Mesa intersections and via mobile devices since 2006. Their driver-distracting cameras and illegally parked radar vans are no longer welcome in the city after the Public Safety Committee voted to not renew the contract.
In 2011, a similar LAPD panel in Los Angeles voted to kick American Traffic Solutions out of that city as well. The main reasons given by the panel were that accidents had increased and most people who were sent the wallet-busting $500 citations by ATS simply ignored them.
It’s no surprise that Mesa would follow suit, given the public outcry about confusing intersection lines and the loss of due process. On the panel’s recommendation, the cameras will be torn out in 2014.
Mesa can look forward to their intersections being free from a private company with a profit motive spying on every motorist passing through.
Last summer residents spoke out on local news about the chaotic situation and uneven law enforcement for drivers:
No words from the ATS sockpuppets yet about their ouster. But it’s easy to assume their legal team and internet shills are going to play their typical games with the media.
The CameraFRAUD meetup group was mentioned in this piece by Time Magazine’s “Moneyland.”
With bills like SCR 1029 making their way through state legislatures in Arizona, Iowa, Colorado and Florida to name a few in 2012, the citizen backlash is being felt by politicians everywhere on the state level.
That might not be possible, but another lie they frequently tell the public has been exposed.
“Every ticket is reviewed by an officer,” ATS execs and PR folk are constantly parroting. It’s hard to believe that’s the case given the volume of the fraud letters masquerading as traffic tickets they send out.
Liberty activists in Phoenix danced in support of Saturday’s “Dance Party @ TJ’s,” which was the reaction to this court case by Mary Oberwetter against the National Park Service for her unlawful arrest, that was upheld by the US Court of Appeals on May 17th.
Adam Kokesh, liberty activist, former congressional candidate from New Mexico and now television news host held a “dancing” demonstration against the ridiculous ruling that silent dancing is somehow not only “disturbing the peace,” but an arrestable offense. Of course, he too was arrested by something called Park Police, which sounds more like a square on a monopoly board than a law enforcement agency.
It’s bad enough when your government wants to profit off of your innate right to travel by videotaping your every move behind the wheel with scameras, but trying to control body movements too? This abuse of the 1st and 4th amendments was enough to cause an outbreak of dance parties all over the US and even other parts of the world.
Red light cameras are all about the money, but some cities are finding that they cut really terrible deals with Redflex or ATS. So terrible that, in fact, they are losing money on the schemes.
An attorney in Broward County Florida has made a business of challenging the tickets, and according to the video, has won every case. Quoted, “They didn’t anticipate that people like myself would be coming to court, fighting the cases and winning.”
There are many other great thoughts from citizens, activists and city officials in this piece.
After much anticipation, the Photo Radar Prohibition bill (SB1352) is now available online for viewing. Introduced by AZ State Senator Frank Antenori, it is an all out ban on the photo ticketing scam in Arizona.
In the past few days, many cosponsors have stepped forward to sign SB1352, giving it widespread support.
The first day of legislative cycles have begun in Arizona and Florida.
Bill sponsors and their cosponsors in both states are extremely confident that red light cameras will be turned off and taken down by year’s end. The recent election results in 2010 that saw several cities ban the red light ticketing scam continue to prove that the system is extremely unpopular.
The two operators of the ticketing machines, Redflex Traffic Systems and American Traffic Solutions are currently tied up in lawsuits in which both are suing their own customers, the cities they operate in.
Adding to the woes of Redflex, in particular, would be the requirement that they notify their shareholders of the impending bans in Arizona and Florida. Events like this tend to have a negative impact on stock prices and the timing couldn’t be worse for Redflex, which is currently up for sale.
2011 is not off to a good start for automated ticketing pushers.
A father-to-be on his way to the hospital with his wife who was 30 hours in to labor should have slammed on his brakes, according to city policy. Steve Selvidge explains in the video that the poorly timed yellow light didn’t give him time to stop safely with his wife about to birth their child sitting in the back seat. There were not any other cars near the intersection at the time of the “violation.”
The town isn’t budging on the $50 fine, which will almost double if he tries to contest it with a Judge and loses.
Germantown is clearly not building up any good will with folks who are interviewed about the scam ticket.
A motorist recently received a photo red light ticket in the mail for allegedly running a red light by a trivial 0.2 seconds at the Scottsdale Rd. and Shea Blvd. intersection in Scottsdale. Interestingly, none of the photos taken clearly show the driver. This didn’t stop Scottsdale Police Officer Debra (Debbie) Wood from signing the citation and declaring “I hereby certify that I have reasonable grounds to believe, and do believe, based on my examination of digital images and data associated with this violation, that the person named herein committed the civil traffic violation listed above.” According to ARS 28-1561.B, a false certification is perjury.
We have to wonder how Debra Wood was able to identify the driver of the vehicle in question with most facial features hidden by the vehicles sun visor and rear view mirror. In fact, it’s not even possible to identify the gender of the driver with any certainty. We know that Arizona courts have ruled on at least 3 occasions that a gender match alone is not sufficient to establish reasonable grounds of belief required to issue a ticket. So how exactly did Officer Wood identify the driver?
In the pursuit of filling Scottsdale and Redflex’s coffers, it appears to us that Officer Wood knowingly and purposefully committed perjury, as the images simply do not provide enough information (reasonable grounds) required to identify the driver and thus to issue a ticket legally. If ever tried and convicted, Officer Wood is at risk of losing her POST certification.
With all five ballot initiatives to ban scameras across the country being upheld, it looks like the word is getting out on a national level that photo ticketing programs are not wanted by the people. In fact, all 15 times photo ticketing has gone to a public vote, it has been banned by the citizens.
Paradise Valley Hidden Scamera Van
CameraFRAUD volunteers who collected signatures on election day (November 2nd) for the initiative to Ban Photo Ticketing and Redflex in Paradise Valley can tell you first-hand that residents of that town don’t want the scam on their streets either.
Posted by warondriving 
CameraFRAUD.com - The Cameras are Coming Down 