Comment from a law enforcement officer:  "I'm completely against the whole idea of"photo enforcement".

Shared by Ilya Pistryakov, NMA Activist, WA State.

A law enforcement officer wrote the following on my blog:

Never received a ticket by one, but I'm completely against the whole idea of "photo enforcement".... And I'm a former Police Officer.  Since inception, these cameras have been either ineffective at reducing actual accidents (some studies have shown minor accidents actually increased after their installation), or even worse, been riddled with accusations (with merit I might add) ranging from corruption (with contractual deals being made to "split" the revenue with the cities and the contracting companies that monitor them), to being deliberately placed contrary, and inspite of state law (as is the case here in Seattle). Seems to me, the one thing they ARE effective at is pitting people against their own local government (who is supposed to be operating in the best interests of the people), and enhancing distrust... especially with law enforcement, which admittedly, I'm particularly against and sensitive to.

Now, I personally worked in Patrol Services for about five years, and it was obvious that if there was an intersection or stretch of roadway that was showing signs of being (or becoming) a problem (speeding, increased accidents, etc) we would increase our visible presence, and increase enforcement (making stops, issuing citations). It always worked. But the funny thing was, and I don't really know why this is, but those "problem areas" changed quite a bit. In my opinion, enforcement does work... if it's being done by an actual Police Officer. You see, if a driver sees the infamous "flash" after they've already gone through an intersection illegally (failing to stop, speeding, etc) it has done nothing to protect the other drivers and pedestrians who were just subject to that additional risk. So if it's not actually protecting people, what the hell is the point? Oh yeah... to make money. On the other hand, if you approach an intersection and you see a marked Police vehicle or an clearly visible Police Officer... Everyone becomes more attentive to traffic laws.

Side note here, in my experience, in general, just pulling people over and not writing a ticket was far more beneficial than giving them a ticket.

Huh? I'll explain.

1. The experience itself is quite stressful on the average motorist, and they will probably drive more carefully after it, regardless of there being a financial penalty.

2. They leave the experience not only being a more careful and educated driver, but they now harbor more positive feelings for law enforcement...

Always seemed win-win to me.

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