Houston Added to List of Cities Voting on Scameras

The 4th largest city in the country is going to vote on a photo ticketing ban. This can’t sit well with scam vendors Redflex and ATS. That list of cities is growing rapidly, but Houston, TX sticks out because it would be a dagger to the heart of the aforementioned fraud peddlers.

TheNewspaper.com covers the saga in at length in their latest article:

“The effort was able to take advantage of a high rate of voter interest and anger at the city’s red light program,” initiative campaign manager Philip Owens told TheNewspaper. “In some neighborhoods where we gathered signatures going door to door. We had a success rate of 90 percent — meaning nine out of every ten contacts signed the petition. That’s a staggering rate and shows this is a people-driven campaign.” The group now will focus its efforts on driving voter turnout in November and refuting the claims made by the paid spokesmen for ATS regarding the effect cameras have had on collision rates (view independent studies).

Also in the Lone Star State, Baytown and Port Lavaca are ready to vote on scameras. Stop Baytown Red Light Cameras turned in the needed signatures to compensate for some that were invalidated by the city. Quoted from their website,

“The Arizona camera company(ATS) gets paid a bounty of 55% of each ticket collected in return for installing the cameras for free. source; Baytown Sun 3-27-10″

If it “isn’t about the money,” ATS sure has a funny way of showing it based on that last stat.

Outside of Texas, Mukilteo, Washington has won their court battle with a front group funded by scamera companies and that Seattle suburb will be voting on a photo ticketing ban.

The great state of Ohio is next on the radar screen with the cities of Garfield Heights and South Euclid, OH having their signature count validated recently. Both city councils are going to review them.

The Cleveland Camera Removal Team is still working on their petition. They are shooting for a special election in February 2011.

CameraFRAUD volunteers will be taking on Paradise Valley, where the scam started almost 25 years ago. Watching these other cities jump on the scamera-ban bandwagon should be plenty of motivation to up our own efforts.

Tonight’s Mission: Paradise Regained.