http://sanrafael.patch.com/articles/the-rap-report-red-light-cameras-and-the-the-california-stop-part-ii

The Rap-Report: Red Light Cameras and the "The California Stop" Part II is considering three more Redflex installations, more-or-less tripling your chances of appearing on "Candid Camera San Rafael."
 

By Richard Rapaport | Email the author | November 15, 2010

It's funny, or perhaps not funny at all, how certain stories exert an ongoing gravitational pull on reader and writer. Such was the case of a piece about my 85-year-old, World War II veteran neighbor, Alan Lefkort, who ran afoul of an automatic red-light camera on Third and  Irwin streets.

Alan, a legendary San Francisco advertising executive, had no idea of his scofflaw-status until the "courtesy notice," arrived from Redflex Traffic Systems, the Australian automatic red-light camera company with American operations in Phoenix. What was weird was that Redflex seemed to have become an appendage of Marin County jurisprudence, able, for example, to send out summonses sooner than city government. This made the series of photographs inside the envelope an even nastier surprise. It is lucky that Alan has a strong heart and a well-developed sense of humor. The citation ended up costing an astonishing $500-plus for a slo-mo roll through a left hand turn from one-way Irwin Street onto one-way Third Street.

This is more than just video sour grapes; San Rafael is considering three more Redflex installations, more-or-less tripling your chances of appearing on "Candid Camera San Rafael."

And if your first impulse is to challenge the ticket as something unsporting, Redflex offers a rebuttal website where you can view an even more-damning full-motion video. Alan had nursed his grudge through what psychologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross identified as the "Five Stages of Grief:" Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Deciding that life was too short, he, like most, paid the fine, but only after writing a letter to the judge, who literally rubber-stamped his reply and charged $40 extra.

This impolitesse came as no surprise. Marin Traffic Court seems to count on its unwitting clientele to follow Kubler-Ross's roadmap. For the extremely stubborn, the system aims to wear down resistance through a process Franz Kafka would have appreciated. The bottom line is that it takes courage, deep pockets and excess time on a geologic scale even before you have a chance to face a judge if not your inanimate accuser.

This is how things remained for several months until another friend received her own citation, photos courtesy of the Redflex camera-salted corner of Third and Irwin. Once again, the "bail" was $500 and Fran Hulse, another San Francisco ad whiz, had her "heat meter" dangerously stuck at Kubler-Ross's "Anger" stage, enough so, she says, "to go to jail rather than pay the fine."

Here was another chance to dig back into a story that seemed to get meatier by the day. For one thing, the number of red-light camera complaints has risen in places like San Mateo, where Assemblyman Jerry Hill recognized a legal miscarriage when he saw one. During the summer, Hill offered Assembly Bill 909 to bring the penalty for being photographed sneaking gently through a yellow-to-red red light to something that comported with its true seriousness, reducing the $500 fine down to a still-considerable $200. The bill was not only to assuage angry drivers, but also recognized that "rolling" through an intersection, classically referred to as a "California Stop," did not equate with the dangerous and stupid act of blowing through a red-light at high speed.

Members of both legislative houses saw merit in Hill's argument and passed the bill in September. Justice would be neither swift, nor sure, however. In October, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, buying the argument of the California Police Chiefs Association that cameras prevented accidents than they caused.

It was a conclusion that San Rafael City Councilmember, Greg Brockbank, among others, "was not comfortable with" and along with "issues of privacy," led Brockbank to question the need for the three new Redflex installations under consideration.  

The real reason for the CPCA's opposition, however, was not hard to deduce. So dependent have police forces across the state become in treating traffic fines as a law-enforcement cash cow, that the chiefs would not risk losing such a key revenue source. And what revenues! The deal between San Rafael and Redflex, enabled the red-light camera fine to cover nearly 20 disparate programs ranging from the $139.06 that is San Rafael's basic "cut" from each of the 3,000-plus citations issued in a typical year, to $3.43 per citation for an "automated fingerprint ID systems fund," with little or nothing to do with traffic safety. According to San Rafael's own figures, the installation on Third and Irwin, harvests an eye-popping $1.5 million-a-year.

So unfriendly-to-motorist have automated traffic system become in San Rafael, Marin County, California, Maryland, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, and even in Redflex's home territory, New South Wales, Australia, that taxpayer revolts are brewing planet-wide. Anti-automatic red light camera projects range from traffic expert Chad Domsife's constitutional challenge arguing that "California Stops" are inherently less dangerous than rear-end crash-inducing panic stops, to San Francisco anti-trust attorney Bruce Simon's suit arguing that contracts with automated camera companies are already in violation of state law and that the literally billions collected since 2004 needs to be returned.

Meanwhile, Fran Hulse is plotting her next move. She is bolstered by a conversation with a Marin court clerk, who seemed to sympathize with the idea that there was something inherently wrong with an Arizona business cashing in on the pain of county residents.

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