Red Light Camera News Records bring traffic cameras into focus
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110812/BLOG48/708129999
Records bring traffic cameras into focus
Rikki King/The Herald
Public records from Mukilteo.
By Scott North and Rikki King
Friday, August 12, 2011 | 2:00 am
One thing has become clear in writing about traffic-enforcement cameras in Snohomish County:
Some folks really don't like having their hypothesis questioned.
When we first started poking at the camera issue, Lynnwood police hinted strongly http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110502/BLOG48/705029862 we should move along. We didn't.
Instead, we filed requests for public records. Lynnwood's documents showed millions of dollars http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110512/BLOG48/705159999 being raked http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110712/BLOG48/707129979 in and scant data http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110701/BLOG48/707019953 to support claims of safety benefits.
Mukilteo recently handed over a big box of emails and reports. Our Aug. 7 story http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110807/NEWS01/708079940/0/FRONTPAGE detailed how a former camera company executive from Arizona last summer went looking in Mukilteo for a proxy plaintiff. Bill Kroske, then a vice president at American Traffic Solutions, Inc., also excoriated Mukilteo public works director Larry Waters, calling him an "idiot" http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110807/NEWS01/708079938 when he raised doubts about camera safety data.
Waters wasn't opposing the camera program. He was facilitating required conversations between ATS and the state.
The response was vintage Kroske.
Anyone perceived as getting in the cameras' way stands against safety. To question the cameras endorses law-breaking. It's all spelled out in his emails and anonymous web posts http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110517/BLOG48/705179793 .
By that logic, Mukilteo must be Sodom by the Sea. Voters there in November lined up 71 percent against cameras.
In Monroe, where the devices have been operating for only a few weeks, the debate has turned nasty.
As he did at home last year, Mukilteo initiative activist Tim Eyman helped collect enough signatures to get the camera question on the Monroe ballot. The city council responded by filing a lawsuit http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110715/NEWS01/110719887 to challenge the legality of the measure. Take that, outside agitators!
To be fair, Monroe officials may have reason to be peevish. Eyman revels in being a costume-wearing pest. He also keeps claiming that two-thirds of Monroe voters signed the anti-cam initiative. Not so. Signatures equaling two-thirds of Monroe voters were gathered, but the auditor stopped certifying at about 1,000 names. It's anyone's guess how many actual voters remain among those uncounted.
Regardless, Eyman's fudging on the numbers is small potatoes compared to the whopper some in Monroe have been serving up. Officials recently drafted a mailer http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110727/NEWS01/707279762/0/rss40 that denies the city is suing its own citizens. It's true the named defendants are the political groups Eyman and others led. But what about the Monroe residents who signed the petitions expecting to vote? And who will pay for the litigation? Attorneys don't work for free and judges don't often penalize people seeking to exercise their First Amendment right to petition government.
Meanwhile, over in Lynnwood, life goes on under the cameras' watchful gaze. The city's latest stats show traffic accidents jumped 6 percent in 2010. That happened even as officers reported spending roughly 2,200 hours reviewing videos for nearly 59,000 potential infractions (PDF, page 17 http://www.ci.lynnwood.wa.us/police/LPDLibrary/Downloads/Documents/AnnualReports/2010-annual-report.pdf). That means Lynnwood had the equivalent of one officer focused fulltime for a year deciding whether to ticket drivers who allegedly rolled through red lights or sped in school zones.
At a time http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110728/BLOG41/110729827/1131/NEWS08 when Lynnwood reportedly is struggling http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110719/BLOG41/110719811 to field enough cops, is that worth questioning?
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