Red light camera company had politician in pocket

www.illinoispolicy.org...

SafeSpeed and its executives have for years contributed mightily to Sandoval’s political war chest. The company also maintains a red-light camera contract with Summit, and employs as a consultant Patrick Doherty, the chief of staff for Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski, who also serves as mayor of McCook. As a consultant, Doherty receives a percentage of the revenue from tickets issued through SafeSpeed in municipalities where he lands the company contracts.

Read that part again!

Doherty receives a percentage of the revenue from tickets issued through SafeSpeed in municipalities where he lands the company contracts.

We all hate those cameras. They cause more accident and they are wrong a lot of time, especially when turning right on red.
It all makes perfect sense. The companies pay the politicians, the company get's contracts, and the municipalities gets a cut.
We all know the municipalities aren't getting a cut, someone is getting rich.

I'm sorry this just makes me sick. This story isn't just about Illinois, these cameras are all over the place. Looks like people have caught on to this
cash cow and are starting to fight back. If you have these in your area, i'd follow the trail from company to local politician.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Corruption knows no bounds in some places (ehem.... Illinois for one...).
Good news is cities that were using red light cameras have been falling like dominoes. Only the most corrupt cities are still clinging to the money making scheme.

In Missouri, red light camera's are illegal. The horrible Republican controlled state named Missouri just keeps doing things right.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Wow!

I'm shocked I say.

Shocked.

That kind of thing happens way more than people think it does. Perks of the job is common.

It isn't right, but in a country ruled by the deceiver, what do you expect. Most people do not even realize what they are doing is not right, Everyone puts the blinders on and repeat things like a parrot. I used to believe that lots of the stuff I was doing was good when I worked contracting for a government funded beaurocracy, but when I started actually looking at the evidence years later, I could see that a lot of people were not looking at things correctly. I believed them because science backed their stuff, I didn't know that they structured things to make it look much better than it really was.

I think there are kickbacks for many people who have power in government agencies.

Seriously no surprise there.

I'll bet you a nickel that if you look at every single redlight camera installed anywhere, there will be a politician in their back pocket. Police departments included.

hoboken just set up a 'virtual parking system' where you download an ap, and you pay for parking.
BUT they extended parking backwards, into the non main street.
before, i could park 3 blocks from the restaurants, and just walk over.
now, you have to pay, even if you just want to order takeout.

you can only park for free, on sundays, OR after 9pm.

not only does this scam hurt regular people.
it also hurts the restaurants.

now i can understand MAYBE, parking by the hour, till 6pm, after business.
but 9pm?

and nyc, also run by a chosen few, have been installing new parking meters, and extending paid parking till 10pm.

they want their profit, and they want it an any expense.

the problem is, once they put these systems in, they never scale back.

so in ny-nj, parking a huge scam.

Cook County? Well known graft for decades. Anyone who expects a contract with Cook County or Chicago is expected to contribute to the Mayor's reelection campaign. It's not even subtle. They just come right out and tell you. Friend of mine bid on a library consulting contract as an IT consultant. Within hours of submittiing his proposal he was called by a Democrat functionary of the mayor for a donation. He declined and, of course, was not awarded the contract, which was for less than $20K.