#camerafraud

Mentioned in the piece are the CameraFRAUD meetup group in Phoenix, AZ and National Motorists Association.

This photo gallery from the WarOnDriving Flickr account, shared courtesy of the CameraFRAUD National Facebook page, should sum it up pretty nicely.

(Hit play to see how these mechanical menaces are treated in other countries; Click here if slideshow isn't displaying on this post)

Arizona saw a few documented accidents caused by freeway speed cameras and scamera vans. Last week a similar accident happened in Sioux City, IA.

A woman traveling down the I-29 became distracted by flooding nearby and lost control of her car. Before she could regain control she had smashed into a dangerous road hazard, otherwise known as a speed camera. Residents of Sioux City had warned of the possibility of this type of accident involving the Redflex operated scam box, but profit always trumps safety.

Luckily the woman wasn’t hurt and as a bonus, the scamera is completely out of commission. This accident easily could have been much worse, however. When will Souix City, IA wake up and scrap this dangerous program?

Full story is at the Sioux City Journal

Ouch.

Redflex shares closed at $2.61 on Monday, after trading was halted.

Chris Cooper and his sphere of investors rejected an offer for $2.75/share by Macquarie/Carlyle.

Redflex opens trading on Tuesday in Australia at.... $1.66 and closes at $1.84, down 30%, but this somehow means that the company will be worth more than $3.00/share to another bidder, according to Cooper.

No wonder they think shortening yellow light times increases safety.

The Wall Street Journal can't figure it out either. <story here>

More fun numbers:

Redflex, as a company lost $100 Million in one trading day.

Cooper and his family's shareholdings took a $10 Million dollar haircut.

KDVR Fox 31 in Denver has uncovered that under Colorado law, photo tickets issued by BOTH speed and red light cameras are legally void unless served in person.

Here's to 30% pay rates, coming your way Denver Photo Enforcement!

Cleveland City Council members are becoming suspicious of the profit-over-safety system of photo ticketing. It’s time for Cleveland residents to let the council know exactly how you feel about this scam as well.

Contact City Council members today and push them to not renew the contract. Your voices can sway this vote and now is the time that they are the most willing to listen. If the contract is renewed, getting rid of the scameras becomes a lot more difficult and unappealing, even to those members who don’t like the program.

Contact info here.

Yesterday, The Cleveland Plain Dealer featured an article about the flaws in the system, run by Affiliated Computer Services, or ACS.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Some Cleveland City Council members want to know if the city’s traffic-enforcement cameras are supposed to save lives or generate income.

And they said Wednesday they are not willing to extend a contract with the company that provides and services the cameras until they receive assurances that the program is more about safety.

“I’m not willing to go along with this program until it’s ‘Operation Safe Streets’ instead of ‘Operation Make Money Streets,’ ” Councilwoman Dona Brady said at a Public Safety Committee hearing.

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Red light cameras are all about the money, but some cities are finding that they cut really terrible deals with Redflex or ATS. So terrible that, in fact, they are losing money on the schemes.

An attorney in Broward County Florida has made a business of challenging the tickets, and according to the video, has won every case. Quoted, “They didn’t anticipate that people like myself would be coming to court, fighting the cases and winning.”

There are many other great thoughts from citizens, activists and city officials in this piece.

Of course, in Arizona we know better than anyone what a scam red light cameras and photo radar are but our lawmakers have refused to do the right thing and get rid of them. In a token move today, a bill passed through the AZ House which deems that motorists are not required to respond to photo tickets. Of course, we all know that this law was established by precedent in Tonner vs Paradise Valley in 1992, so this whole proceeding is highly ceremonial.

On April 12th, multiple groups, including Campaign for Liberty, held simultaneous protests all over the state of Florida.

A year after lawmakers passed a law allowing cities to install them a bill to ban the system completely is moving through state legislature.

The video below has great news clips from several stations all over the state. Concerned citizens of Florida, we salute you!

Make sure to call your representative today in favor of Florida SB 672!