Posted on 07/18/2014 8:22:50 PM PDT by markomalley
Thousands of Chicago drivers have been tagged with $100 red light fines they did not deserve, targeted by robotic cameras during a series of sudden spikes in tickets that city officials say they cannot explain, a Tribune investigation has found.
The Tribune's analysis of more than 4 million tickets issued since 2007 and a deeper probe of individual cases revealed clear evidence that the deviations in Chicago's network of 380 cameras were caused by faulty equipment, human tinkering or both.
Chicago transportation officials say they had no knowledge of the wild swings in ticketing until they were told by the Tribune — even though City Hall legally required the camera vendor to watch for the slightest anomaly in ticketing patterns every day. Many of the spikes lasted weeks.
The lack of oversight raises new questions about the controversial traffic enforcement program, the largest in the country, now embroiled in a federal corruption probe into allegations that the city's longtime red light camera manager took bribes from the camera company.
“Something is terribly amiss here,” said Joseph Schofer, an associate dean at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science who reviewed the Tribune's research.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Hacksaws, .22s, and maybe flaming tires are the proper response to traffic cameras.
How to beat red light ticket: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/effectively-beat-red-light-camera-ticket/
Friend in Chi-town just received ticket and sending similar worded response.
I live in central Illinois, about 180 miles from Chicago. About 40 years ago, the city of Chicago sent me a parking ticket. At that time, I had never been in Chicago in my life. I found out that they were sending them out randomly, all over the state.
Some people actually paid them.
Bump for later when I get a red light ticket
Times are getting tough for the red light and speeding camera crowd. Americans refused to play their game.
Nice
This actually sounds like in most of the cases the camera operated properly, but the reviewer wasn’t aware that a turn after full stop is legal. In some states, there’s no turn on red, in others the full stop has to be before the limit line. If the first reviewer wasn’t applying the right standard for Chicago, then the second reviewer could have just been signing off on anything thrown in front of her for years, and that wouldn’t have shown up until the first reviewer started screwing up. One of those cases where it’s not an independent review if they’re both applying the wrong standard or if one of them isn’t actually doing a review at all.
My city dumped the cameras because they weren’t effective and we were losing money on them. We didn’t get many bounced out of court, primarily because the citation couldn’t be issued until a cop reviewed the tape.
Traffic cameras should be an anethma to every American.
They violate the Bill of Rights and are demonstrably a tool to create revenue rather than decrease behavior, such as running a red light.
It's the Chicago Way!
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