Posted on 06/15/2006 9:50:31 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
DES MOINES, Iowa -- New traffic-light cameras have not even been plugged in yet in Clive and they are already getting opposition.
In about two weeks, Clive will hook up a six cameras in hopes of catching red-light runners.
The American Civil Liberties Union spoke out Wednesday, saying the government is getting too nosy.
"They can only be in so many places at one time, obviously," said Clive's City Manager Dennis Henderson.
The cameras will capture images of red-light violators and their license plates. The vehicle owners will then find a $75 ticket in their mailbox.
City leaders said the cameras will save lives.
"You may have the accidents, but hopefully they'd be much more minor," Henderson said. Others are concerned.
"If you want the government to control you, jump on board. These are great for controlling people. But if you like to have autonomy as an individual in society -- then you want to be suspicious of this," said Ben Stone of the Iowa ACLU.
The ACLU is fighting the city of Davenport about cameras. The cams raised $200,000 in just five months.
"They're very attractive to local government officials because it's a way to suck a lot of money out of the citizenry," Stone said. City leaders said that money does not drive the decision to install the cameras.
"Revenue generated from this program is going to go right back into public safety, whether it's to hire additional police officers or firefighters, or equipment for them," Henderson said.
Henderson said he hopes the cameras encourage drivers to observe the traffic signals, change their behavior, become safer operators of the vehicles and increase public safety.
The ACLU disagreed, saying that city government should not have this much power.
(Excerpt) Read more at kcci.com ...
For once I agree with the ACLU.
wow, so am I. I guess even rich obnoxious libs don't like getting tickets in the mail either...
The St. Louis suburb Creve Coeur just voted to install them. They should start going in around January....
ditto that. I know some intersections where it would really help, but I'm not fond of taking even more steps to get closer to Big Brother.
The ACLU has nothing better to do than go after cameras to catch potential killers...while seeking to release the terrorists at gitmo and defending child pederasts!
Someone explain what kind of meds these people are on...
I agree with the ACLU. These little Orwellian revenue enhancers have to be stopped. Red light cameras are unconstitutional.
Yup. The ACLU really screwed up on this one and got it right.
Never thought I'd say this, but I agree with the ACLU.
If the cameras were really about saving lives, the fines would be higher. And, the article would not have had the sentence "The cams raised $200,000 in just five months." It's a revenue generator, pure and simple.
We were able to get them turned off locally, due to the fact that the fining process was unlawful. Law states that 90% of civil fines needed to go to schools....The contractor was pinching $35 out of every $50. A technicality, to be sure, but I don't care. They got turned off.
Don't you mean a broken clock?
I oppose them too. I don't like the creep of big brother.
Red light cameras have to be watched closely if implemented, as the $$ create an incentive for cities to shorten the duration of yellow lights to catch more offenders. This happened in San Diego, IIRC.
A secondary result is more rear-enders at intersections as people slam on their brakes to avoid running a red.
Good for them.
When going to court ask to see your accuser face to face.
Nothing more, nothing less.
I find this as difficult to do as nodding my head in agreement with a Democrat, it's so difficult to agree with the ACLU on anything, but in this case they accidently did something I would agree with.......
Beat me to it.
Hate to agree with the ACLU about anything, though. It's a matter of principle.
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