Red Light Camera News ONE CITY’S EXPENSIVE RED LIGHT CAMERA PROGRAM COLLAPSES UNDER ITS OWN WEIGHT
ONE CITY’S EXPENSIVE RED LIGHT CAMERA PROGRAM COLLAPSES UNDER ITS OWN WEIGHT
As drivers discover they do not have to pay the fines
December 18, 2011
(PASADENA, CA) -- Pasadena, California is the latest city to bail out of a red light camera ticketing program with an out of state vendor.
Citing a lack of legal consequences resulting from those red-light camera tickets and the rising costs associated with running the program, the chair of the Pasadena City Council’s Public Safety Committee has announced the city will stop using the cameras in June.
The city will simply allow its contract with Arizona-based American Traffic Systems (ATS) to expire on June 30. ATS cameras had been in place since 2003, according to a report in Pasadena Weekly.
As in similar programs around the country the cameras take pictures of vehicles involved in alleged traffic infractions, along with the driver and the vehicle’s license plate.
However, the tickets have been found to be unenforceable, because drivers do not sign a promise to appear in court. Without the signature, the tickets cannot go to warrant and instead are simply sent to a collection agency.
Public Safety Chair Steve Madison told Pasadena Weekly the program is riddled with problems.
“Nothing happens if you ignore it; it does not go on your DMV record, no one comes looking for you and the police have to look at each picture to make sure that they are sending the ticket to the right person,” Madison is quoted in the Weekly as saying.
The report quotes Pasadena Police Officer Brian Bozarth, who runs the camera program as saying, ““More and more people are figuring out that they will not be punished if they refuse to pay the violation fine, let alone have to show up in court at all…because the driver who was caught by a camera running a red light did not sign anything promising to appear in court, we have no legal recourse to issue a warrant for their arrest. The citation then gets handed over to a collection agency, but even then after they mail a couple letters and make a couple annoying phone calls, they cannot force the violator to pay the fine.”
And ignoring the initial ticket, which costs about $500, and the collection agency will not affect the violator’s credit rating or DMV record
The city says another reason for bailing on the red light camera program is he amount of time an officer had to spend in court addressing contested tickets.
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