Charlotte had speeding cameras for about a year. Revenue-generator pure and simple.....NOTHING about safety, and what a scam.

The city thought they had a real rice bowl here and was trying to keep all the money. They ignored (or 'forgot') that It was written into State law that some 80% had to go to school funding. The way the contract was written, the company running the cameras got about 50% of the monies generated. The city took them down once that particular lawsuit (funding for schools) was settled.

IMO, unconstitutional. Speeding (or red light cameras for that matter) is a criminal offense.....Which has to be met by an accuser, or a police officer on-the-spot (or after a warrant). Now they are infractions, but criminal infractions nonetheless. The way they got around this was to make it a CIVIL charge.....Get a citation (civil) in the mail some 2 weeks after the 'offense' (to which most folks don't even know or remember what happened), then go after your property, or refuse to renew a license plate or something, if the civil fine isn't paid.

Get it? Turning a criminal infraction into a civil charge so as to 'legally' charge, and seize revenue from citizens. There's something real creepy (and probably illegal) about the State 'tweaking' the legal system like that. Can you imagine if they arbitrarily decided to take a class of civil issues and make them criminal offenses?

Scam....Pure and simple.

Cops are inefficient as revenue generators. You'd be surprised at how little city cops actually get to just enforce traffic stuff. We are, after all, slaves to the 911 system, or to whatever else is going on........Highway Patrol is a bit different. Around here, traffic enforcement is their bread & butter, but even then.........

If a municipality is that worried about red lights and/or speeding, then they need to staff their public safety with enough police to cover that and 911, and other proactive policing. If someone runs a red light or is speeding, then they need to be stopped RIGHT THEN AND THERE.....Not two weeks later with a frickin' letter in the mail! No one likes blue lights 'lighting' them up, but at least you are dealing with an infraction or misdemeanor right then and there....in front of an actual person wearing an actual uniform.

Now cameras at intersections so you can replay stuff like traffic accidents, etc., IMO are a GOOD thing.........

 

Heard on the radio today, that a fellow Hoosier got one of those tickets in the mail. It was from a town in Texas, dated December 23rd. All he could make out from the fuzzy photo that it was an Indiana plate. He called the phone # and got the runaround. He could prove that he wasn't in Texas on that date. I think the company that processed the plate made a big guess on the numbers and mass mailed everyone that they thought it would be, hoping to get the right person.

 

They did that in Baton Rouge. A guy got a ticket with his plate number, the plate read texas his read louisiana. He was told to pay the ticket. He fought them and finally won but lost several days of work in the process. It was in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate last year.

 

The ones in Germantown Tn are for revenue generation only. The yellow lights are so short you can get a ticket by turning just before the yellow comes on. I've timed them & they are 3 to 4 seconds shorter than other yellow lights on the same street.I hope someone finds a way to take the city to task about the & gets them removed. I just moved away from Tn.The city I lived in is installing several of the cameras I'm against them because the stupid cameras cause accidents by drivers slamming on the brakes to avoid a ticket. I never got a ticket but I see the cameras as a infringement on our freedoms. Tn is a great state. Memphis Sucks.

 

For those who might visit California, or live here, here is info about California camera tickets - info that even most residents don't know.

As in many fields of endeavor, we do it differently. Not better, just differently.

Here they cost about $500! And a point on your license. Because our tickets put a point on your license, the police have to get the name of the actual driver before they can file the ticket at court. Since the photo of the plates leads only to the registered owner ("RO"), and he/she often was not the person driving the car, about 40 California police depts. mail out Snitch Tickets, which are fake/phishing red light camera tickets sent out to bluff the RO into ID'ing the actual driver of the car. Snitch Tickets haven't been filed with the court, so are recognizable because they don't say "Notice to Appear," don't have the court's address, and say (on the back, in small letters), "Do not contact the court." Since they have NOT been filed with the court, they have no legal weight. You can ignore a Snitch Ticket. If in doubt, Google the term.