Red Light Camera News TIM EYMAN SAYS “I TOLD YOU SO!” About those red light ticket cameras
TIM EYMAN SAYS
“I TOLD YOU SO!”
About those red light ticket cameras
August 20, 2011
Lynwood Police department caught up in embarrassing emails with red light ticket camera company.(REGIONAL) --
For a long time now citizen activist Tim Eyman has been shouting from the rooftops to anyone who would listen that those red light ticket cameras cities started putting in a few years ago had nothing to do with safety and everything to do with money.
Eyman and others call the cameras “crack cocaine for municipalities.”
And so it was that Eyman on August 19 sent an I-told-ya-so email to supporters, politicians and the media saying his position as been validated by a smoking gun – recently released emails from police officials in Lynwood.
Emails that Eyman maintains, “Force Lynnwood’s Police Chief to reverse his public position and admit: Ticketing cameras are all about the money, not safety…holy crap!”
Published reports on August 18 claim Lynnwood’s police Chief Steve Jensen admits the city now depends upon the millions of dollars it gets from the robot camera issued tickets and if that money dries up he will have to lay off police officers. That, after having maintained since 2007 that the controversial ticket-issuers were all about safety.
Jensen has also requested an outside probe into whether two key officers of his - including a Deputy Chief who is also Jensen’s domestic partner – crossed any ethical or legal lines in their dealings with the Arizona company ATS (American Traffic Solutions, Inc.) that owns and operates the cameras.
Last year those cameras brought in more than $4 Million to the city.
The reports show emails by two members of the police department were engaged in conversations with ATS that the department now finds an embarrassment.
Conversations like the city’s Deputy Chief of Police Karen Manser allegedly probing ATS about job prospects around the same time she began negotiations about renewing Lynnwood’s multimillion-dollar camera contract, which expires in November.
It doesn’t end there.
A police sergeant, Sgt. Wayne “Kawika” Davis who leads Lynnwood’s traffic division, allegedly offered the Scottsdale, Arizona company his help with marketing the cameras to other cities and even with lobbying against legislation that would seek to reduce revenue from those camera issued tickets in Washington State.
Reports say Davis allegedly wrote in an email in February that money from the cameras was keeping police officers in their jobs and that ATS “Has our backs… the City of Lynnwood itself and the Lynnwood Police Department must also do everything we can to ensure this program continues unhindered. Any negative change to the program means more layoffs and program cuts,” Davis allegedly wrote.
Chief Jensen says writing that stuff was not smart and never should have happened. So he’s asked the Everett police to do an internal investigation into his department to ensure officers haven’t engaged in misconduct.
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