Free Republic

Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday vetoed legislation that would have outlawed red-light cameras in Arizona. ... studies have shown increases in rear-end collisions due to drivers abruptly stopping when a light turns yellow ... Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, said the cameras are "cash cows" for municipalities and the companies that operate them. "Cities and towns use the photo radar scheme to collect millions of dollars from unwitting statewide drivers each year. This traffic citation scam enables third-party companies to exploit Arizona drivers, ... Rogers said in a hearing that the companies who operate red-light cameras keep roughly 75% of the...

A recently unsealed court document reveals for the first time that two top officials at a red-light camera company were caught on undercover FBI recordings talking about giving a suburban mayor campaign contributions and other perks at the same time their firm was pressuring the mayor to increase ticket revenue. The 2018 FBI search warrant, which sought court approval to search an email account of then-Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta, was part of the broad, yearslong investigation into corruption surrounding red-light cameras operated by SafeSpeed LLC, a probe that has netted charges against more than half a dozen public officials, businessmen...

Illinois local governments generated more than $1 billion in red-light camera revenue from 2008 to 2018.. Each red-light camera ticket in Illinois costs drivers up to $100.. Chicago has long been a poster child for red-light camera abuse. The city is home to the nation’s highest count of red-light cameras, a former high-ranking transportation official serving jail time for taking bribes from a red-light camera company, and a pricey settlement for drivers who a judge ruled did not receive proper notifications in the ticketing process. ... smaller local governments outside the city have installed almost as many red-light cameras as...

Wilmington, North Carolina renews deal with red light camera contractor that violated state engineering laws. The Wilmington, North Carolina City Council last week signed a red light camera contract renewal despite protests that the state had found the for-profit camera contractor in direct violation of the law. American Traffic Solutions (ATS, now known as Verra Mobility) was found to be practicing engineering without a license by the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors last year. The company has yet to remedy the violation, according to the city traffic engineer. Todd Platzer, a local resident, raised the issue...

NASHVILLE — State Rep. Andy Holt is urging Tennesseans to ignore traffic camera tickets and emphasizing his point by burning a citation in a video that apparently has received more than 325,000 Facebook views. "What do you do if you get one? Throw it in the trash. Personally, I prefer to burn mine," says Holt, R-Dresden, in a lengthy news release issued in conjunction with posting the video on his Facebook page Wednesday, which shows him using a cigarette lighter to set the ticket aflame. Holt, a longtime critic of traffic camera tickets who repeatedly has called for banning them...

Starting next month, drivers in Miami will no longer have to hold their breath when passing under a yellow light, now that the city council has voted to end its red-light-camera program. In last year’s elections, Francis Suarez, the successful candidate for mayor, made a campaign promise to cancel the city’s 2010 contract with American Traffic Solutions, arguing that the cameras hurt residents with excessively high fines but didn’t make the roads any safer. Other localities would be wise to follow Miami’s lead and scrap their cameras. Red-light cameras are touted by their promoters –– predominantly camera manufacturers and law-enforcement...

New questions are being raised over whether red light cameras in Pueblo are more about revenue and less about safety... the city is giving drivers less time to get through those intersections which potentially increases your chance of getting a ticket. ... Almost from the start, installing red light cameras has been a controversial topic, and now the focus has shifted to how they are timed. ... According to the National Motorists Association Foundation, the yellow light at that intersection should last a minimum of 5.5 seconds. News 5 Investigates discovered the yellow light is set to last a second...

Outside the Hall of Justice in Fremont, they line up before dawn, waiting to get into traffic court, many hoping to get a break on an expensive red-light camera ticket. “I am definitely not looking forward to paying the $500,” said Rohan Kapuria, who got a ticket last October. “The yellows turned so fast to red that I didn’t have a chance to react,” he said. That happened at Mowry and Farwell, a Fremont intersection that caught the attention of red-light activist Jim Lissner. “Sometimes you see something going on,” he said. Lissner has made it a hobby to monitor...

This year, Aurora City Council doled out $864,239 in nexus funds among five nonprofits, awarding the most money to nonprofits identified by Aurora police as the most helpful to law enforcement. Aurora nonprofits that receive funding through the city’s “nexus” program dodged a legislative bullet this year, but that won’t prevent city lawmakers from taking a closer look at how the money is being spent. Six nonprofit groups in Aurora receiving money from photo red-light enforcement were relieved after Gov. John Hickenlooper vetoed legislation this year that would have created a statewide ban on the cameras. But how that money...

The city of Chicago on Monday expanded its lawsuit against Redflex Traffic Systems to include the former red-light camera contractor's parent company. The amended suit was filed Monday in federal court and added Redflex Holdings Ltd. as a defendant. The city said violations of the False Claims and False Statements ordinances prompted the filing. "In connection with each of the city contracts, the defendants filed numerous statements, under penalty of perjury, certifying, among other things, that they were not engaged in bribery of any city employees, and that they would comply with the ethics ordinance," the filing stated. "These statements...

Analysis finds no safety improvement from red light cameras in Garden Grove and Los Alamitos, California. Red light cameras are disappearing from California. Once the state had more than a hundred cities using automated ticketing machines, but by now a greater number of jurisdictions have canceled their programs than have functional cameras. On Monday, the Los Alamitos city council decided to keep its cameras despite a new report showing the devices have not improved safety. Jay Beeber, Executive Director of Safer Streets LA, provided his analysis of the safety impact of photo enforcement use to the city councils in Los...

Defense attorneys challenging red light cameras win three cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. The highest court in Missouri on Monday struck down red light camera and speed camera programs. In three separate cases, the high court judges found that the cameras unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof by forcing ticket recipients to prove their own innocence. The judges also found that the creation of "civil" citations and administrative hearings for moving traffic violations violated state law. The decisions were a major blow to American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the Arizona-based vendor .. Earlier this year, the firm settled a class...

Mayor Michael Coleman announced Wednesday the termination of the city’s contract with Redflex, effective immediately. Redflex is the company that handled Columbus’ red light camera program before a state law forced the city to cease issuing citations. The announcement comes after a Redflex executive pleaded guilty to charges relating to bribing public officials. “Based upon the City’s contract authority, we will be terminating the contract with Redflex immediately,” said Mayor Coleman. “I support a photo red light camera program because it saves lives, however the actions of the Redflex executives have raised questions about the integrity of their program.”

A former chief executive officer of the red-light camera company Redflex has pleaded guilty to bribing Columbus elected officials - including Council President Andrew Ginther - through the Ohio Democratic Party to install the cameras and keep them operating in the city. Karen L. Finley, 55, of Cave Creek, Ariz., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, according a press release from Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. Records from the U.S. District in Columbus show that from 2005 to 2013, Finley made campaign contributions to elected public officials in...

Red light camera programs in Florida are in a state of flux after a Florida District Court of Appeals judge said the current system of issuing tickets is unconstitutional. On Monday, a class action lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Miami, seeking $5 million in damages from American Traffic Solutions, which operates most of the cameras in the state. The lawsuit also demands that ATS reimburse every driver who has paid tickets issued by the company. But its not the only lawsuit against ATS in the Sunshine State. So far, plaintiffs have filed three suits. ... this means...

Drivers in Chicago have gotten wise to speed cameras, budget figures show, and now the city needs to come up with $50 million in revenue. Chicagoans are costing the city tens of millions of dollars -– through good behavior. Mayor Rahm Emanuel underestimated the intelligence of Chicago drivers, and the city paid for it big time. On a smooth, wide, well-travelled stretch of Irving Park Road, running between two cemeteries — no homes, no stores, no parking — the city of Chicago is trying to balance its budget. Each flash means a photo; each photo, a violation. Each violation: a...

An independent audit of nearly 16,000 red-light camera tickets determined that a majority of them were correctly issued. Ninety-six percent of the tickets were deemed to be properly issued, to be precise. . . . CDOT spokesman Peter Scales told the Sun-Times the validation rate was in line with the city’s expectations.

Thousands of drivers in New Jersey were caught on camera allegedly running red lights but were never informed of the potential fines they faced because of a technical glitch. And the state Judiciary has asked local courts to throw out all 17,000 alleged infractions. The state lawmaker who today brought the issue to the public’s attention — Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon —said it's is just the latest example of why New Jersey’s red light camera should not be renewed when it reaches its December expiration date. ... The news of the glitch comes just days after the former CEO of Redflex...

The former CEO of the company at the heart of Chicago's red light camera bribery scandal has been indicted by a federal grand jury. Karen Finley — the 54-year-old former boss of Redflex Traffic Systems — was indicted Wednesday, three months after city worker John Bills was charged with soliciting bribes to help Redflex win the city's lucrative red light camera contract, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. . . . . . But evidence of unexplained spikes in tickets issued at intersections since then means the red light program remains a political headache for Emanuel.

<p>Those big, ugly early birds began circling over the corporate headquarters of the revenue-camera industry last week when federal prosecutors announced that felony corruption charges had been filed against the Chicago city official in charge of one of the world’s largest red-light camera operations. More dominoes are expected to fall as FBI agents take the investigation to other cities.</p>