John Bills, 52, a retired Chicago official who managed one of the nation's largest red-light camera programs
Chicago, eh? What, didn’t Rahm get his cut?
Every level of government is robbing the people of money their families could use. Then they wonder why the economy stinks. Slash government by 50%, reduces taxes by half and see the surge in economic health.
I know of an impeccable source who is a power player in a Rust Belt city.
Whenever the mayor and city council resist one of his (re)development plans, he reminds them that he has a petition to remove red-light cameras always at the ready for circulation and, eventually, a place on the ballot.
The council members contemplate the loss of $15 million annually and quickly dance to his tune.
The ‘safety’ argument has been undermined dozens of times by the very people putting the argument forth. It is thoroughly discredited except among the gullible.
I never realized that Redflex was an Australian company. I thought it was just a bunch of greedy, Chicago thugs ripping off Americans.
These things should be outlawed....all one gets for evidence is a picture of his cars rear end!!! Get behind a truck and can’t see the light....tough....pay up!!!
It’s already been said, Chicago. But I especially like the line about how Chicago could set an example for all other cities by .....getting rid of the corruption (taking down the cameras). That is hilarious.
They will re-brand, reset and re-contract the service so new players can belly up to the KBT (kick Back Table).
Used ethically, a camera can well be kept to its stated purpose. But that would require them to be used even at a loss. Longer yellows, a little discretion.
And don’t forget that even a cop can be told to generate more revenue.
Ping!
Why don’t more people come up behind the camera and spray paint it over the lens? That would stop a lot.
I’ve followed what’s going on with these cameras for some time. They talk about them preventing those t-bone accidents when people run red lights, yet in just one intersection in Chicago, EVERY SINGLE RED LIGHT CAMERA TICKET was for someone not coming to a complete (and I mean COMPLETE) stop before taking a free right turn.
Even if it was in the middle of the night and there was not another car within a mile of the intersection...
There is also an intersection there where people will take a right to return rental cars at the airport. Looks like a normal intersection with normal visibility, but it has a camera and there is “no right turn on red”.
Then I was in Tacoma WA a few months ago and I went through the shortest yellow light I’ve seen as far as I can remember. In fact, it was so short that I came back to it to see if it was a camera enforced light. Yep.
When Denver CO installed their red light cameras some years ago, not even one was installed at any of the top 100 most dangerous intersections.
Does anyone know what other states/localities are among the 14 in which this guy claims to have bribed government officials?
I’m thinking there’s a good chance Washington, DC is among them...
John Bills, 52, a retired Chicago official who managed one of the nation's largest red-light camera programs
a retired Chicago official who managed one of the nation’s largest red-light camera programs, accusing him of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, an Arizona condominium and other gifts to steer $124 million in city contracts to Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.
After allegedly fixing a key commission vote to secure an initial $25 million deal, John Bills, now 52, attended a celebratory dinner and made clear it was time for him to be paid by Redflex for delivering the contract, a 28-page complaint says.
Chicago awarded that contract to Redflex in 2003 and signed others later for the city’s first red-light enforcement program, which uses cameras to automatically record and ticket drivers who run red lights. After 32 years with the city, Bills retired in 2011 as managing deputy commissioner of the transportation department.
The complaint portrays Bills as walking his contact through how the payoffs could be made. The unnamed contact — who made a salary, bonuses and commissions from Redflex — withdrew around $650,000 between 2006 and 2011. The withdrawals corresponded to pricey purchases by Bills, including for a Mercedes-Benz, the complaint says.
A former sales executive of Redflex who was fired by the company said in a court filing as part of a lawsuit in Phoenix that the company gave bribes and gifts to government officials in dozens of municipalities in 13 states: California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.