Red Light Camera News Slam the brakes on red light cameras: One reporter’s tale of a citation gone wrong
(link from www.stpetecameras.org)
Slam the brakes on red light cameras: One reporter’s tale of a citation gone wrong
By Rocky Salmon, SWRNN
Saturday, January 15, 2011 comment print page text size
I have defeated The Man.
Well not the man, but an automated camera that snapped a picture of someone driving my car through an intersection in Murrieta – at 4 a.m. I was one of the few who stood up and fought my ticket and had my red light traffic citation thrown out in court.
On Tuesday night, the Murrieta City Council will vote on whether to extend the program by adding more cameras within the city. As a journalist I should stay out of the fray. As a resident in the area and motorist who travels the city frequently I need to tell my story. For the details of the city’s staff report and a story on the issue revisit this earlier swrnn.com story.
After receiving the ticket I talked about it with many people who have received red light camera tickets. All of the people I spoke to just mailed in a check because the process was too arduous and they could never beat The Man.
But I’m a journalist and we research and fight everything – from red light camera citations to being overcharged a dime at an area restaurant. It’s in our blood.
My story begins with an envelope received by a third party agency that handles Murrieta Police citations. It included a photo taken of my car driving through an alleged red light at the Murrieta Hot Springs Road/Margarita Road intersection and a letter kindly asking me for $476.
The city has two other cameras at Murrieta Hot Springs Road/Whitewood Road and Clinton Keith Road/Nutmeg Avenue. Staff reports show that the city now averages about one violation a day at the Murrieta Hot Springs/Margarita and Clinton Keith/Nutmeg lights. The Whitewood intersection still gets about five violations a day.
The police sent out the citation to the registered owner: me. The letter was sent to my old home, but luckily, the post office rerouted the mail in time for me to appeal. If I did not get the citation in time a bench warrant could have been issued for my arrest.
I decided to appeal by a trial by declaration, with the knowledge that if the judge ruled against me I could still appeal and request a live trial. I figured the error was so egregious a judge would side with me and I also was working mandatory overtime for four weeks straight from 6 to 5 at a job in San Diego and could not take time off to go into the courts.
I had someone snap of photo of me from the angle the red light camera shot from. In the picture, the rearview mirror blocks the top portion of the face.
I dropped off a detailed packet with a detailed legal argument to the Temecula court clerk.
I monitored the court decision through the online system. Finally, I saw the judge threw the citation out because the Murrieta Police never responded.
Two weeks later I got my bail money back. I raised my fist in triumph. I spent about 15 hours of my time to fight this bogus ticket and had to deal with the anxiety of a $476 ticket hanging over my head.
With the traffic light program up for renewal I figured now was a good time to tell my story. On Tuesday night, the City Council could decide to shut down the program or expand it, even though the price of the cameras will rise by nearly $300 per camera. The city needs at least three tickets per day to subsidize the program, Murrieta Cpl. Jay Forboese said in an earlier interview.
Executive Director Gary Biller of the National Motorists Association said the problem with the red light cameras is that police and cities argue they are for safety when in fact their sole purpose is to generate revenue.
Residents in cities across the nation have fought against the red light cameras, placing referendums on the ballots to prevent similar programs.
“Every time a referendum is placed on a ballot it always passes,” Biller said. “Motorists can see through to what the cities are trying to do. If the cities wanted to stop red light signal violations they would turn to other options.”
The biggest difference would be to simply add more time to yellow lights. Loma Linda added a second to yellow lights in the city and the number of red light violations nearly disappeared. The City Council ended the red light camera program because the change in yellow light timing solved the problem.
Cities have lost legal fights in court over red light cameras because of technical glitches such as the length of yellow lights. Froboese said two cases have gone before a judge and both times the judge sided with Murrieta.
The city runs tests on the cameras through out the year to make sure the cameras are within the legal guidelines.
Murrieta contracts through American Traffic Solutions. Froboese, who heads up the Murrieta red light camera program, walked through how a red light infraction ticket is issued. When a car is within range of the video camera, a computer starts running a series of probability formulas to determine if a vehicle is going to run the red light. The camera records eight to ten seconds of a violation and that information is sent every half-hour to Scottsdale, Ariz. to the company’s office. The vendor then has a person who goes over every violation in the morning and sends possible citations to a secured server in Murrieta Police Department.
Officers then look over violations and determine whether the citation would stand up court.
“If it is too close to call we reject them,” Froboese said.
Critics point out that the process violates our constitutional right to confront their accuser. With a police officer there is someone to argue with or talk to. You can’t hold a conversation with a camera or drag a video into court to interrogate it.
Biller said his group estimates that less than 5 percent of people who received traffic violations actually fight the citations because they figure the police will always win.
I was upset when I received the ticket in the mail. Not only did I have to go through the lengthy process to fight this ticket, a bench warrant would have been issued if the mail wasn’t delivered on time.
Another problem is the proliferation of “Snitch Tickets”. When I called the small number on the citation, I expected to talk to the Murrieta Police Department. Instead I was sent to a third party vendor. I explained to the person on the other line that it is obvious that the person driving the car was not even a man. The person on the other line said that was fine and they would rescind the citation on one condition: I had to tell them who that person was.
I explained I could not in good conscious because I was asleep at 4 a.m. so there was no way for me to know for 100-percent sure who was driving that car.
In researching the issue with attorneys who fight red light camera tickets, the companies will only rescind the ticket if they can get you to confess and go on record who was driving the car.
On the web these types of tickets are called “snitch tickets”. Police can turn around and send a citation to the person who was named.
In the end, police can provide numbers showing a decrease in broad side collisions and a decrease in red light violations. But does that really stop the problem?
If someone is inebriated or speeding, will they really stop because there is a red light camera snapping photos? With only $158 going back to the city coffers from each ticket, couldn’t the money be spent in a better way?
Froboese said the police will provide the data to the City Council but won’t make a recommendation one way or another. He did say he would expect red light violations to rise because Murrieta Hot Springs is full of transitory traffic.
I disagree. I don’t think anyone is altering their driving behavior because of cameras. Instead I watch as people speed up to make sure they aren’t caught in the intersection with the light turning red or slamming on their brakes and skidding across lanes just to avoid a ticket.
Can’t the city try other options to improve public safety, including working on light synchronization and yellow light timing? All across the nation, cities have learned that eventually these programs turn into a fiasco and end up costing money.
Subscribe to this comment's feedwritten by We Deserve Better , January 17, 2011
Help us to remove the cameras in Murrieta. There is a group of us who also did our homework and the city Contract is Illegal. Judges and state code state no contract can be nuetral and ours is. Frobuse bragged about it too.
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