Redflex Corruption

[Jim]

I got a ticket in the mail yesterday. Here is the "evidence" against me. If I were doing 79 in the 65 as claimed, I would have been in the trunk of the car in front of me. I am car #2 behind the truck. A car from Colorado is passing me, and he may have been going 79, but I don't know. If he was, it looks like I got his ticket.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH3NTQrE12k

AZDPS and Redflex are clearly lying about the quality control they claim to do, and they have no problems sending a ticket to an innocent victim to help tighten the budget problem and fatten the corporate profits. If they looked at the videos as they claim to do, I never would have gotten this.

Something tells me I am not the first person to whom this has happened. Is anyone interested in starting a class action lawsuit against a company which gathers evidence for the state without a private investigators license, and has profit as its motive behind "law enforcement"?

[big_load]

It was weird not to see any portable photo sites on this trip. Traffic on Loop 101 seems to flow more naturally now, too.

[hikeaz]

PEORIA, Ariz. - All charges have been dropped against a Peoria man arrested after being caught on photo radar going 104 miles-per-hour.

You may remember the case of Elvis Saloum, whose story made headlines in November of last year.

Department of Public Safety officers arrested Saloum and released photographs and video of him speeding. But now his lawyer has told 3-TV the case against Saloum has fallen apart.



Twelve criminal speeding counts have all been dropped and the deadline for any appeal by DPS has passed.

DPS investigators said a year ago that Saloum liked to drive his mother's 1998 Lexus at dangerous speeds. He was caught on camera 55 times -- at speeds ranging from 86 to 104 mph -- all over the Valley, on State Route 51, Interstate 17, the Loop 101 and Interstate 10. DPS Officer Jeff Hawkins said Saloum's actions were "reckless in every way."

Officers tried numerous ways to contact Saloum, but he eluded them until he eventually was arrested at a shopping center near his Peoria home.

Photo radar on state freeways was controversial from the time it began in October 2008. Opponents claimed it intruded on privacy and was designed primarily to make money. Less than one-third of the 1.2 million tickets issued were paid, as most drivers ignored them.

The cameras were turned off July 15 after the state declined to renew its contract with Redflex Traffic Systems.

Authorities said one driver wore a monkey or a giraffe mask to avoid paying photo radar tickets and that he was snapped by the cameras 90 times.

[Jeffshadows]

Maybe he will drive his mother's Lexus into a block wall at high speed and do us all a favor.

[hikeaz]

I bet I know who he called when he was arrested.......... or who paid for his attorney...................His MOM-MY.....

[hikeaz]

I realize that this could never happen here, because around these parts it's all about 'safety'. ;) , but....


Italy: Red Light Camera Makers Arrested for Fraud
Red light cameras shut down across Italy in massive fraud scandal involving 109 public officials and contractors.

Red light cameras are shut down across Italy as the largest ever government investigation into the illegal use of photo enforcement expands. Carabinieri yesterday placed the inventor of the "T-Red" brand of red light camera, Stefano Arrighetti, 45, under house arrest. Another 63 municipal police commanders; 39 mayors and other public officials; and red light camera distributors including Kria, Ci.Ti.Esse, Maggioli, Traffic Technology and Open Software are under investigations. Documents and automated ticketing machines have been seized from 54 municipalities.

Motorist complaints about being trapped at camera-equipped intersections with short yellow signal durations sparked the inquiry. Verona Preliminary Investigations Judge Sandro Sperandio ordered police on January 24, 2008 to seize T-red devices in Tregnago, and the case soon spread across the country to other cities and towns under contract with photo ticketing companies.

Criminal charges of forgery and fraud are based on four basic complaints, many of which represent common practices in the United States.
First, municipalities are accused of shortening yellow times to boost profit. Although not binding, Ministry of Transportation guidelines recommend a minimum yellow of 3 seconds for intersections with a posted speed of 50km/h (31 MPH), 4 seconds for 60 km/h (37 MPH) and 5 seconds for 70km/h (43 MPH). Many cameras were placed at high-speed intersections with yellow times as short as 3 seconds. In the US, photo enforcement advocates modified signal timing guidelines beginning in 1985 to promote the use of shortened yellow timing without running into legal troubles.

Second, investigators found that municipal police never reviewed the camera fines. Instead, the tickets went straight to private companies like Ci.Ti.Esse which affixed scanned electronic signatures of police officials before mailing the citations, in violation of Italian law. Camera companies in the US also affix digital signatures to citations that have often never been reviewed by police officials.

The third charge involves fraudulent type approval of the red light camera device. Arrighetti's company, Kria, is accused of having only the T-Red's camera approved by the Ministry of Transportation, not the electronic control hardware that determines who receives a ticket. The same charge has been leveled against Redflex, the Australian company that operates US red light and speed camera systems.
The fourth and most damaging charge involves contracting irregularities. A municipal police commander who helped a red light camera system go from 500,000 Euros in fines in 2005 to $1 million Euros in 2007 received a 2000 Euro (US $2580) bonus from a private company. The no-bid contracts offered to the companies that operate the systems with a per-ticket compensation of 35 percent of each fine issued, while common in the US, violate Italian contracting statutes.

Motorists who have already received fines may apply to the courts to have them canceled.

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Italy: Police Raid Speed Camera Company Caught in Fraud Scandal
Italian police find 81,555 speed camera tickets worth $16 million were fraudulently issued.

Italian police yesterday raided the Brescia headquarters of a speed camera manufacturer accused of fraud involving seventy municipalities throughout the country. Officers from the Guardia di Finanza, the law enforcement arm of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, seized computers, machine components and fifty speed cameras as evidence.

Salerno prosecutor Amato Barile ordered the raid after discovering evidence that Velomatic 512 photo radar units bearing the same individual serial number were being used by different municipalities located hundreds of miles apart. Under Italian regulations, each camera used for issuing citations must be properly calibrated and approved. By cloning serial numbers, the company avoided testing requirements. Prosecutors also believe that some of these cameras were calibrated in such a way that motorists adhering to the speed limit would receive citations.

As a result of a criminal conspiracy, 81,555 tickets worth 11.3 million euros (US $16 million) fraudulently issued between 2007 and 2009 have been canceled, refunds will be given and license points will be removed. The consumer watchdog group Codacons wants permanent changes in the law, including banning the ability of municipal governments to pad general funds with photo ticket revenue and a minimum five-second yellow warning time at intersections. In January, the makers of the T-Red brand of red light cameras were similarly arrested for fraud after prosecutors found motorists were being trapped at intersections with short yellows and improperly certified equipment.

"That yet another seizure has happened on the national territory demonstrates how municipalities are using illicit means and violating the law in order to make cash," a Codacons press release stated.

Yesterday's raid was given the code name "Operation Devius." The investigation is ongoing.

[big_load]

Any similarity to companies living or dead is purely coincidental.

[hikeaz]

Tickets issued by scamera vendor ATS in the city of Tucson since August 14th are invalid. Citizens of the city should immediately begin requesting refunds.

In addition, anyone with a photo ticket issued during this time from the Tucson area should also request that their driving record be wiped clean of the alleged violation.

Here is a link to the expired contract: Tucson Contract with ATS

The video will take it from here…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA85WJyZ ... r_embedded

Why does Tucson or ATS think it is justifiable to issue tickets when there isn’t even an agreement in place for them to do so?

What would stop Redflex from dragging their little trailers out to Tucson and just start issuing violations for any reason they could come up with? If ATS can do it, why not at least try? Heck.... maybe I'll just get my OWN trailer....it would be kinda like my own personal ATM

ATS and Redflex are effectively two criminal organizations illegally issuing photo tickets that violate your Constitutional Rights and for some unexplained reason, to this point it’s been allowed to go on. Is this episode of flaunting the law enough, or does everyone need to see more?

[chumley]

I read about that last week. I thought it was funny because Tucson officials were quoted in the article as saying that the contract would be renewed, and that it would be done retroactively back to the date it expired.

That sounds like a very clear legal challenge waiting to happen!

[hikeaz]

First-time Republican candidates are polling within striking distance of incumbents long believed to be invulnerable. Add to the list of Election Day's must-watch races five contests heating up in Houston and Baytown, Texas; Anaheim, Calif.; Mukilteo, Wash.; and Garfield Heights, Ohio. Residents in those localities became so fed up with the lies elected officials told them about red-light and speed cameras that they overruled local leaders and forced votes on banning the machines.

With the exception of Anaheim, where the mayor himself led the uprising, politicians foisted automated ticketing machines on an unwilling public with lofty assertions about "saving lives." Reliable studies show the systems are more effective at generating money than safety, and the public has caught on. Since 1991, residents in 10 cities have rejected cameras, with 61 percent in Sykesville, Md., voting against them in May.

The upcoming referendum contests are just the beginning. Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar Chairman Shawn Dow told The Washington Times that he will circulate initiative petitions in all 14 Grand Canyon State jurisdictions that use cameras. This is a credible threat, as his all-volunteer group collected more than 120,000 signatures demanding a statewide ban - a number that fell just short of the legal requirement.

The outrageous conduct of local officials ensures no shortage of inspiration for anti-camera activists. Alexandria, Va., shamelessly cut one second from the duration of the yellow light at South Patrick and Gibbon streets, hoping to boost the haul from its installed but not-yet-operational red-light camera. A traffic engineer working for the National Motorists Association documented how Virginia Beach officials failed to follow legally required engineering principles in setting a yellow time that's a half-second short at Kempsville and Indian River roads, with the deficit accounting for 52 percent of the automated tickets generated.

Maryland is no better, with newly minted "school zones" created on pedestrian-free high-volume roads that don't lead to any school as an excuse to install cash-grabbing machines. Individuals who want to contest automated fines in Forest Heights are still waiting for a court date - while under threat of a car-registration hold for failure to pay the photo ticket.

In Maryland and Virginia, referendum procedures are either onerous or nonexistent. That means the best way to defeat ticket cameras there is to elect officials on the right side of this issue. The Old Line State has an especially clear choice this November, as Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who vetoed speed-camera legislation when he held office, faces off against Democratic Gov. Martin J. O'Malley, who wants to install some kind of camera on just about every street corner. A critical mass of executive, legislative and popular action to ban robotic ticketing in the year ahead might force the private companies that operate the devices to seek honest work in another field.

[paulhubbard]

force the private companies that operate the devices to seek honest work in another field.

I don't believe it's the private companies at fault. It's purely the corrupt grubament that's saying how the devices are to be used. Are the private companies the ones creating fake school zones or tweaking the duration of yellow lights? Nope.

If I had a device that photographed anyone going over 35mph and the state said "Hey Paul, if you stick that thing on I-17 at mile post 234, we'll give you $25 for every ticket we collect on", I'd probably be more than happy to accommodate them!

[hikeaz]

force the private companies that operate the devices to seek honest work in another field.

I don't believe it's the private companies at fault. It's purely the corrupt grubament that's saying how the devices are to be used. Are the private companies the ones creating fake school zones or tweaking the duration of yellow lights? Nope.
If I had a device that photographed anyone going over 35mph and the state said "Hey Paul, if you stick that thing on I-17 at mile post 234, we'll give you $25 for every ticket we collect on", I'd probably be more than happy to accommodate them!

Yes - I'm glad that we're rid of Napolitano too. She's the one who started the camara mess as far as the highway version anyway. Brewer did a noble deed by dumping these camera bozos.

The camera ATM companies know that shortening the duration of the yellow light increases red light infractions. Often times it is the camara company who gets to set the yellow duration. As a for-profit business it's their goal, presumably, to make as much $ as they can - they could give-a-.... hoot who they hurt along the way.
The individual gub'ments / mayor/ city council members themselves are culpable as well, by INCREASING the danger at these intersections by allowing the camera, sometimes at the expense of someone's LIFE, all for the love of the almighty $. These guys are, at best, asleep-at-the-wheel and worst case in-bed with the camera companies to bilk the sheep (us).
The gub'ments are certainly more sinister, as we pay them to PROTECT us (among other things) but instead they 'throw us under the bus' for more $$.
Oh.. wait... that's right... it's all about safety.

[hikeaz]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... &#41077567

[chumley]

Note: Cameras are turned off in Tempe right now. Contract is under review.

More amusing is that Redflex is trying to get money from people who had their citations dismissed by going to traffic school. Tempe takes a $105 surcharge from all traffic school registrations and Redflex isn't getting their grubby little hands on that, so they are suing Tempe for $1.3 million in lost revenue.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/temp ... -fees.html

Redflex filed the lawsuit against Tempe last December.

The company alleges Tempe failed to inform Redflex it was collecting fees on a surcharge for drivers who resolved their citations by going to defensive-driving school.

Redflex is asking to recover "all fees in an amount not less than $1.3 million and all attorney fees and costs," according to Maricopa County Superior Court records.

Ching said, "Tempe's stance has always been that whatever money was due under the contract we paid Redflex."

Tempe officials believe the contract calls for Tempe to pay a fee to Redflex per each paid citation. But Tempe attorneys allege the contract does not require Tempe to pay Redflex a share of revenue received from drivers who choose to go to driving school in lieu of paying their citation.

[big_load]

Maybe Redflex can rig the driving schools, too, so that graduates will get more tickets in the future instead of fewer.

[Jim]

Red Flex, a caring company that just wants to improve public safety.


Anyone want to by some prime desert real estate?

[big_load]

The Redflex experience in NJ has been interesting. They have pilot contracts with a small handful of towns. A few other towns are clamoring for a chance to install and start raking in the proceeds, but the way I read it, they can't afford the start-up costs. What's most interesting is that towns that actually have it are not expanding their programs or advising others to take part. There is a growing sense that those pilot programs haven't met expectations or even come close enough for advocates to pretend that they have.

[hikeaz]

I spoke with Cory Woods, a Tempe city council member last week, and he stated to me that all-said-and-done, that we Tempe taxpayers subsidized the photo cash-grab to the tune of $15K last year.
So, Redflex seems to be the winner in this case (even though they and Tempe are on the 'outs' currently), and, as usual, the taxpayers (both non-ticked and ticketed) are left with their wallets blowin' in the breeze.
I have repeatedly asked Woods if the city has gathered crash data from the photo intersections, but to date he has stonewalled my request. Many studies have been done that prove that red light survellience cameras INCREASE accidents - I have yet to read one where crashes actually decreased at surveilled intersections.
Peoria and Glendale (Az.) continued their surveillance cameras even after their own PD's accident stats showed a significant INCREASE in accidents - all-the-while touting 'safety' as their untmost concern.

For the record, Cory Woods appears to be against the photo money grab, whereas the (lame duck) Mayor Hugh Hallman is in favor. Of course, when election funds are needed these guys have a habit of 'forgetting' their past beliefs.

[kingsnake]

That's because people go on their merry speeding way until they see a camera, then slam on their brakes, causing all the texters behind them to pile in ... ;)

[Jeffshadows]

I can't believe some of the language and hyperbole in this thread. Don't speed and you won't get in trouble, cameras or no. No one wants to be held accountable for anything they do in this country any longer!!

[Alston_Neal]

Interestingly PV, which I believe was the frst in the nation to use cameras, now has a warning sign about 150 feet before the van.
Thanks.. ;)