Speed Camera News Charlack, MO at it Again. Speed scamera van given "free" to city in exchange for revenue.
Charlack, MO at it Again. Speed scamera van given "free" to city in exchange for revenue.
(Thanks to www.wrongonred.com for posting this on the web).
Charlack Gets Car With Cameras To Catch Speeders
Camera Company Provided Vehicle At No Charge
CHARLACK, MO. (KPLR11.com)—
The small north St. Louis County, Missouri, community of Charlack, with the reputation of being a speed trap, has just received a new tool to catch speeders. They just took delivery of a vehicle that is equipped with four cameras that can capture both front and rear license plates and the drivers face.
Charlack had earlier this year set up a stationary speed camera to catch speeders on southbound Interstate 170, but was later forced by MoDOT to remove the camera.
With the addition of the mobile unit with the special cameras, the city will now be able to target speeders in any part of the city.
The new vehicle cost $100,000 and was donated to Charlack by the company providing the cameras. The deal between the city and the camera company calls for the camera company to get 35% of every paid violation.
(Ban the Cams note: what is in the contract you signed, just like the US PIRG mentioned there is no doubt more to this scam than meets the eye. http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/36/3623.asp
"Pitfalls can arise when contracts encourage vendors to treat automated traffic enforcement systems as a profit center: by maximizing the number of tickets written, regardless of the impact on public safety; by limiting the ability of governments to set traffic safety policies according to community needs; or by constraining the ability of cities to terminate contracts early in the event that automated enforcement systems are rejected by the electorate or fail to meet safety goals,")
The new speed enforcement vehicle should hit the road by mid-January.
Ban the Cams comment:
Photo enforcement is ONLY profitable if they can churn enough "violations". The primary method is to put this scam van on roads where the speed limit is underset for conditions. Ironically if you were to raise the limit to 85% speeds you would get compliance that would render a speed scamera unprofitable. Here is a good article on one in DC area. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/snapshot-of-a-montgomery-county-speed-trap/2011/11/09/gIQAW3BDDN_story.html
see: http://www.motorists.org/speed-limits/ and http://www.motorists.org/speed-cameras/ for more info.
also http://www.abd.org.uk/topics/speed_cameras.htm is a good view too. In fact they did a report earlier on the subject: http://www.abd.org.uk/topics/speed_cameras/SpeedCamerasDoNotSaveLives.htm
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