Comming to your state soon- Arizona to meet budget shortfalls by issuing millions of traffic tickets

In an effort to save thier state funded pension plans and overpaid jobs (With full benefits) Arizona state employees are all set to persecute the citizens of Arizona.

Private industry is failing to generate enough tax revenue in the state of Arizona to meet the budget, so the state has new ideas on how to meet the citizens responsibility to support the state.

Gov. Janet Napolitano's ideas for closing the state's big budget shortfall include ... ticket revenue from speed enforcement cameras.

Napolitano included $90 million of revenue from photo speed enforcement in last January's initial 2008-2009 budget proposal. But the budget approved in June, largely crafted by the governor, had no revenue from that source.

www.azcapitoltimes.com...

There are 2 private companies that have set up shop as the state's official photo camera radar provider. The first one has a contract for upto 200 cameras. There are reports that as many as 300 cameras are being planned.

Faced with one of the tightest budget crunches in its history, the state of Arizona is wasting no time in deploying its newly authorized freeway speed cameras.

The state estimates that fiscal 2009 will see 428,839 citations worth $77.6 million. In the following year, the number will grow to 571,785 tickets worth $103,493,085. The state's contract with Redflex provides an option to double the revenue by increasing the total number of cameras to 200.

www.thenewspaper.com...

Women will have to decide between shrinking family budgets and a false sense of state provided security. (Financial freedom or financial security) Photo radar tickets start at $180 and go upto $650+. Add on lost productivity for court appearances and increased insurance rates for violators.

Lyliana Boranova saw the flash and exclaimed, "Oh no! What did I do?? It shouldn't be for me!"

www.abc15.com...

300 photo radar units that produce $1 million each x 300 units = $300 Million in new tax revenue for the state of Arizona.

Have one bad day, blow through 12 cameras in one morning commute and you could rack up thousands of dollars of fines to the state, lose your license and your means to provide for your family, if it involves commuting to and from work everyday.

I wonder how many cops it would take to issue as many tickets as one photo radar camera? (42?, 56?, 100?) The police departments in Arizona should downsize thier workforce, if they can't keep up with technology's ability to increase productivity.

The fun has just started. This economic war is going to get very, very ugly.

[edit on 19-11-2008 by In nothing we trust]

The problem is that many of the red light cameras cause accidents because wary drivers often slam on their brakes as soon as they see a yellow light -- and get rear-ended in the process.

So many people complained in Mesa, AZ that they had to make the yellow lights longer, which didn't sit too well with the camera company, who gets a commission on every ticket issued.

Talk about unconstitutional, you can't cross-examine the camera.

Now people are avoiding red light intersections altogether, which really messes up the traffic patterns.

Sadly, crime will likely increase as law enforcement doesn't need to put cops on the street to increase revenues.

4am speeding north on I95 through washington DC and *flash*. "dangit."

sure enough, about three weeks later i got a piece of paper in the mail demanding somewhere in the neighborhood of $200.

it was an easy task to find info on the net about the (il)legal ramifications of an automated ticketing system. you dont have to pay these things. currently, there is no legal precident. if you take it to court, it WILL be thrown out. so i just wrote them a letter telling them to stuff it.

i never heard back, and it never showed up on my record.

Or how about just not speeding?

Sure, its another form of big brother, but in principal, people like breaking the law, cause they are sure there aren't enough cops to catch them all. Kind of the mindset that gets us into these messes.

How dare the state use law breakers to gain additional revenue! What is the world coming to when you can't even speed/ignore laws without being fined??! Where is the anonymity?

WHERE ARE OUR RIGHTS GOING?!

/end sarcasm.

Its not just about not speeding. I live in Phoenix. Sure, the speed trap cameras are one thing, but theyre only on the 101 which runs north and south and is a majorly used freeway but isnt the major freeway, which is the 60 and runs east west. As if it werent obvious enough that these cameras are only there to make money, the part of the 101 theyre installed on leads to Scottsdale which is the richest snobbiest part of Arizona. Not to mention either side of the freeway where they are is part of the reservation and has a big casino on it.

To me speeding on the freeway isnt a big problem unless the driver is driving in a negligent fashion. More often than not the worst drivers are the ones who just arent paying attention, talking on their cell phone or just being ignorant of the drivers around them and the situation on the road. I dont know if you all know this, but in Arizona the speed limit on the freeway is really only a guideline. Generally as long as you are going with the speed of traffic youre not speeding. Obviously this doesnt apply to racing or excess speeds, but you get the drift.

The real issue with these cameras, like another poster mentioned, is the left turn cameras. On more than one occasion my friends and I have been sitting at a light, watched a driver go through the intersection while the arrow was still yellow and they got flashed by the camera anyways. I recently got a ticket on one of those, because I sped up to make the green arrow and was a foot or so from the line when the arrow went yellow and I couldnt have stopped in time. Needless to say the ticket came in the mail soon after. I was almost all the way through, barely still in the intersection, when the camera flashed. What confused me was when this happened the lane next to me had a Mesa cop sitting in it.

He may have figured I was already getting a ticket, but even if he did its still not unlikely that a cop will pull you over anyway here to try to add any other charge on that they can. The quotas out here are pretty obvious, and the cops love resorting to any means. These cameras are a huge money maker, but its already garbage living in this state with the 35% income tax. I dont know where all that money goes, but its certainly not going to anything good.

it only cost about $150 dollars to form a Nevada corporation.
www.nevada123.com...
www.incorporate.com...

Put your cars in the corporation name.

When the ticket comes send a letter back that the employee that was driving that day has been fired and you do not have a forwarding address.

The state lawyer that gets stuck with the speed camera duties is not likely to be very good as a lawyer.
Corporation lawyers are very good or they would not be corporation lawyers.
The state lawyer knows this.

The state will drop the ticket because they can not prove WHO was driving.
and the one thing the state lawyers really hate is dealing with corporation lawyers.
The state knows they will likely lose.

Works for me.

My oldest boy lives in Arizona,and yes the Phoenix area I saw cops pulled off partialy hidden,and cameras are rampant there,but on the less traveled areas average speed was around 75,besides the freeways around Phoenix are not unlike freeways here in So Calif,hard to speed in congestion

Ticketing for revenue is already a part of almost every city/state.

In New Haven, CT they're "cracking down" on bicycles that go on the sidewalks and ride through red lights. $175 for riding your bike on the sidewalk. Hundreds of tickets have gone out in that circus of a city. Sure gangs run the city and everybody and their 36 cousins are crackheads but there's no money to be made in stopping them. Gotta ticket the guy on a bike.

Folks are really missing the REAL problem with these cameras. They are run by a private company who receives financial benefit to issue as many tickets as humanly possible, whether valid or not. In most states, it is a requirement for a law enforcement officer to witness a misdemeanor violation first hand to prosecute it. These folks are not even law enforcement personnel but an organization that has a vested interest in making money thru bypassing standing laws. What is to stop me from starting a corporation and filming private individuals then making a deal with the local government to fine people for any crime I can find in those videos, anything from littering to smoking in a no smoking section. These companies often provide the cameras free of charge, and even go so far as showing cities how to pass ordinances to by-pass the standing laws allowing their enforcement.

The city where I live they are already abusing red light cameras by issuing tickets to folks who are not running the light, but rather making a legal right turn on red or even being inches over the white line. I wrote a thread on the cameras in my area, here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

This is a serious issue, and if we don’t nip it in the bud, we are heading to a real big brother scenario. Once a government starts to make a profit in this way, it will only grow worse exponentially, it will never go away. Next thing you know we will be hearing “John Spartin you are fined 1 credit for a violation of the verbal morality act”, for real.


[edit on 11/19/2008 by defcon5]

Originally posted by midnightbrigade
Or how about just not speeding?

Sure, its another form of big brother, but in principal, people like breaking the law, cause they are sure there aren't enough cops to catch them all. Kind of the mindset that gets us into these messes.

Or better yet if you can go fast enough you can escape the photo. There was a program where a stock car driver tested a camera out and by the time it clocked him and then snapped the photo it either got a blank highway or one shot got the rear bumper of the car.

Then there is always jammers which are highly illegal but you can only get caught if a live person is there to see the radar malfunction which is pry the best way to go.

reply to post by Darthorious


No the best way to go is that there is paint or clear covers that you can place on your license plate which reflect the camera flash back at the camera. In most places these are currently legal, as they are clear for all other purposes and do not obstruct the license number. Of course this varies state by state.
www.photoblocker.com...


Edit: Change the Url:

[edit on 11/19/2008 by defcon5]

Originally posted by quetzalcoatl13
I live in Phoenix. Sure, the speed trap cameras are one thing, but theyre only on the 101 which runs north and south and is a majorly used freeway but isnt the major freeway, which is the 60 and runs east west.

Check again.

They are constructing them on every valley freeway right now.
101
202
303
60
I-10
I-17

They are going up about every mile or so on some parts. They also have a mobile fleet of camera SUV's and vans that they are planning on moving around.

And the cities are following suit with red light cameras and their own income generating camera traps. Soon you won't be able to drive anywhere without passing at least one. Millions of tickets are about to be issued.

[edit on 19-11-2008 by In nothing we trust]

Originally posted by defcon5
reply to post by Darthorious

 

No the best way to go is that there is paint or clear covers that you can place on your license plate which reflect the camera flash back at the camera. In most places these are currently legal, as they are clear for all other purposes and do not obstruct the license number. Of course this varies state by state.
www.photoblocker.com...


Edit: Change the Url:

[edit on 11/19/2008 by defcon5]

They tested all of those with the stock car driver episode and every single one failed and they got the picture. Better yet if there's no cops on the road who needs a license plate anyways lol

Edit: they were able to zoom in on the photo and see the plate even with the flash reflection also the camera maker said that it would only work if it was a head on flash and the flashes are all angled.

[edit on 19-11-2008 by Darthorious]

My wife and I were just talking about this last night. Some cities are even shortening the yellow light cycle to increase revenues. This is bigger than just your breaking the law so you need to pay as some mentioned above. This is about individual freedoms. Soon we will not be able to walk anywhere or do anything without big brother watching. Is that the society we really want to live in? Is this the principals that America was founded on? Ben Franklin said it the best "He who sacrifices liberty for security deserve neither"

In a simpler context so I have to pay my tax dollars to fund the police, to pay for the cameras, to pay for the private companies who control the cameras, and then I have to pay the ticket if I go through a shortened cycle yellow light. If we are going to have cameras all over why even have police? Start firing them we dont need them. This is a big issue and people who cant see that then I just dont know what to say.

Shotguns work well. Boom. No tickie.

as someone who lives in arizona,
www.sprayyourplate.com...



love,
ray

It occurs to me that said cameras are probably easily damaged... like say.. I doubt they'd withstand an impact with an aluminum bat...

Or strategically applied spray paint...

Not a suggestion... just a thought.

I know that here where I live we have cameras at the stop lights. The ticket is about 75 dollars. The city keeps 15 of it. The state gets another percentage and the rest goes to some company in Germany. I guess they couldn't find an American company. Now Germany is making money off us.

They have those cameras here in Nashville too, it was on the news the other night.
Everyone is complaining saying a picture doesn't tell the whole story. What if it isn't safe for you to stop, you can't block an intersection.
What if you are just speeding up to pass some unsafe idiot talking on his cell phone?

The latest revenue trick here in Davidson County TN is that they no longer send out reminders that your tags are up.
If you don't remember on your own, too bad.
On the first of the month every cop in town is on the lookout and they give tickets every time. No warnings.
Easy way to fill that ticket quota.