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| D.C.: Traffic Cams Are Profitable. Britain: Crime Cams Don't Work. |
| 2005-02-24 |
| Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey yesterday outlined a plan to expand the District's use of speed and red-light cameras, but was not aware of details to reimburse a private contractor for issuing as many as 103,000 traffic-camera citations a month... Meanwhile, Closed circuit TV systems are of little use in the fight against crime, a surprise government report claims today. Home Office researchers who studied 14 schemes across Britain found that only one had brought a clear fall in the local crime rate. While there was strong public support for CCTV before it was installed, opinion began to shift when people realised the cameras made little difference... |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #7 I've avoided their evil clutches so far... What about using a paintball gun to "coat" the lenses or the flashtubes? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-02-24 9:50:55 PM |
| #6 The Wash. Times had an article a while ago that showed 80% of the speeding tix are issued to drivers commuting into DC from Maryland and Virginia. Most of the cameras are placed on major arteries in/out of the city. It's sort of a back-door commuter tax that the city leaders keep trying to push thru Congress. I've avoided their evil clutches so far... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-02-24 5:17:04 PM |
| #5 D.C.: Traffic Cams Are Profitable. Well, of course! That's the object of traffic cams - to generate revenue. Can't tax people's driving? No problem! Set up traffic cameras under the pretext of "safety". |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-02-24 5:06:15 PM |
| #4 Speed Zone Cameras always remind me of this Classic True Urban Legend, heh. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-02-24 2:05:44 PM |
| #3 BigEd- Nah, chances are they won't have to do that at all. If their program runs anything like here in Phoenix, you have someone checking out the photos to see if they are usable (have to have a good face shot). If not, it doesn't get charged. Even if they decide to go for it and send them the citations/pictures, there's plenty of ways to get out of responsibility for the red light violation if you know your 5th Amendment rights well enough. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-02-24 2:00:30 PM |
| #2 That they don't work may be a feature rather than a bug in the eyes of DC politicians. If they worked, revenues from traffic infractions would decrease. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-02-24 1:27:52 PM |
| #1 Obviously there is some waste of time because, being in DC, there will be ambassadors who will claim diplomatic immunity, and file protests over the pictures of them fudging the red lights... |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-02-24 12:19:14 PM |