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Most states, to issue a criminal citation and not a civil citation, require that the citation be issued by the person (cop) witnessing the crime (speeding) to the person(you) whom the witness (cop) saw commit the crime. This means that the cop witnessed you speeding, caught you, identified you, confirmed that you are the person stated on your driver’s license and issued the citation to you. Not perfect but the state has a solid case against you.

In a red light camera. There is no way yet to confirm the identity of the person driving the vehicle. Even if a picture is taken of the driver how does the state know who it is? They don’t which means all of these automated scams rely on self incrimination.

As for adjucation of the citation most states require that notice of a hearng be given in person. Similar to the cop above, someone must identify that you receive the notice.

Most of the so called tickets for red light cameras are actually invitations to confess and affirm that you have been roperly served. Once you do that yu are sunk.

“Most of the so called tickets for red light cameras are actually invitations to confess and affirm that you have been properly served.”

Indeed. That’s exactly what happens in Colorado. Any camera ticket here is a civil matter only, not criminal. All you have to do is throw away any mail you may have received about the matter. After the second piece of mail, they may or may not send a civil process server, which is usually an off-duty police officer, but doesn’t have to be.

Just make sure you don’t personally accept service within 90 days and there’s not a damn thing they can do to enforce the ticket.

After they try personal service one time and fail, they’ll cut their losses and give up. If they haven’t managed to serve you within 90 days, the whole thing is automatically mooted under state law. Whether you pay the ticket or dodge it, there is no criminal record of the matter kept (because it’s not a criminal matter), no points on your driver’s license, and no cop can serve you during the service period if you are stopped for some other traffic matter because service is a civil matter.

I successfully went through the entire dodging procedure for a camera ticket issued by Boulder a year ago. Cost ‘em a bundle on the process server, too He tried one Saturday morning but I wasn’t up yet and my wife (who had been previously alerted) refused service.

The cop then illegally left the service documents in my mailbox without a stamp. I laughed because it was big and red and had all of this scary sounding language that meant absolutely nothing. I did have fun though in turning them into the U.S. Post Office.

I was actually surprised they attempted service since I don’t live in Boulder and the off-duty cop had to drive 30 miles to attempt service. But I did have a lot of fun dodging service.

If more people did this, they’d lose money and give up.