Red Light Camera News Nathan S. Collier: Is Gainesville destined to become a surveillance state?
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20111215/OPINION03/111219801/-1/news?p=all&tc=pgall
Nathan S. Collier: Is Gainesville destined to become a surveillance state?
By Nathan S. Collier
Special to The Sun
Published: Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 5:12 p.m.
Today the City of Gainesville is about to take a huge step toward the “surveillance state.” Under the guise of safety, red-light camera’s are going to be activated at the five Gainesville intersections you are most likely to transverse.
For-profit companies have fanned out selling the snake oil mantra of safety and free money to revenue hungry communities across America. It’s a great business plan for the companies, but is it good for us?
There is no real science to support the safety claims, no objective proof that there are any meaningful safety benefits. No objective third-party peer reviewed studies have been done by anyone with without an ax to grind, no long-term science studies have been done, funded by truly disinterested parties.
It all relies upon “common sense.” Remember years ago when everyone had to endure “safety inspections” for their car? There was a big facility down by the Highway Patrol station on north 441 where you had to wait in line. Seemed like a good, common sense idea.
Then someone in the Legislature finally asked “Show me the benefit. Prove it to me!” Turned out that no one could show any benefit and that costly misadventure was put to timely, if belated, end.
Gatso USA, an overseas based company, will make $4,750 per light per month, or almost $25,000 a month, before the City gets a penny. That is 64 tickets per intersection per month, or 320 citizens penalized each and every month to pay Gatso. That is over 3,800 citizens a year. City elections have been won with fewer voters.
Using a private, for-profit company to enforce traffic regulations to generate revenue creates an incredible conflict of interest and most inappropriately puts a third party solidly between citizens and their government.
The vast majority of the citations issued tend to be for right turn on reds, i.e. rolling stops; hardly a huge life-saving issue, and the vast majority of the rest tend to be of the off-a-second “pushing the yellow” variety.
The city’s proposed contract does not currently call for ticking of right turns on red, at least at first, but allows for the city to do so if it wants.
This is a classic “camel nose under the tent” provision; anyone with experience with government and “mission creep” knows that it is only a matter of time.
While experience has been mixed, many cities across the country have removed their cameras because of citizens’ protests. Citizens tend to fight these tickets in court (surprise!), leading to expensive legal battles that drain the public coffers.
Red-light cameras are a massive intrusion into Americans’ privacy with little to no known benefit.
The essence of personal liberty is a right to privacy, the right to remain anonymous, to prevent intrusion into one’s personal life. Data that gets collected tends to get used and abused, hacked and posted.
Our city commissioners will be voting today. If you value your privacy, if the idea of a for profit company enforcing traffic regulations in order to generate revenue bothers you, then let Commissioners know This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Nathan S. Collier is a Gainesville businessman.
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