Maryland Police Refuse To Pay Speed Camera Tickets
Speed cameras in Montgomery County, Maryland have been ticketing motorists for quite some time now. Under their program, the tickets go to the owner of the vehicle instead of the driver. This is a common flaw in ticket camera systems across the country.
Local authorities have decided that it’s acceptable to do this to avoid the hassle of tracking down the actual violators.
The average motorist who receives a speed camera ticket can either fight it in court or send in a check. However, the amount of effort and time necessary to get a speed camera ticket dismissed is substantial. As a result, most drivers — even innocent ones — choose to just pay the ticket in order to avoid taking time off work to go to court.
Limited court costs are a key reason why ticket camera programs are so profitable for local governments.
According to the Washington Post, police in Montgomery County are bucking the trend and have decided to use their union resources to avoid paying camera tickets:
Among the thousands of drivers who have been issued $40 fines after being nabbed by Montgomery County‘s new speed cameras are scores of county police officers. The difference is, many of the officers are refusing to pay.
The officers are following the advice of their union, which says the citations are issued not to the driver but to the vehicle’s owner — in this case, the county.
So basically, they’ve decided to exploit the flaw in the system that they helped create. The article continues:
That view has rankled Police Chief J. Thomas Manger and County Council Member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), who chairs the Public Safety Committee.
“You can’t have one set of laws for police officers and another one for the rest of the world,” Andrews said.
Unfortunately, too often this appears to be the case, creating unnecessary tension between police officers and motorists:
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In recent weeks, officers have twice been photographed speeding past a camera and extending a middle finger, an act that police supervisors interpreted as a gesture of defiance. “There is no excuse for that kind of behavior,” said Andrews, who was briefed on the incidents.
During the last eight months of 2007, the department’s cameras recorded 224 instances in which county police vehicles were nabbed traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit, the department disclosed this week in response to an inquiry from The Washington Post.
Of those citations, 76 were dismissed after supervisors determined that officers were responding to calls or had other valid reasons to exceed the speed limit. Nearly two-thirds of the remaining 148 fines have not been paid, including an unspecified number that remain under investigation, said Lt. Paul Starks, a police spokesman. He said the number of citations issued to police employees this year is not yet available.
It will be interesting to see whether the officers will be held to same standard as normal citizens, who would most certainly face consequences if they refused to pay their tickets.
Image Credit: MikeSchinkel
3 dirty tricks that the ticket camera industry uses to steal money from safe drivers. Discover what you don't know.
Despite years of evidence showing that ticket camera companies don't care about safety and will do anything for a buck, there are few tricks that the average driver often fails to notice. You can help expose them.
Again James is right on. I don’t want to discourage anyone from contacting their public elected officials but do it in an “educated” manner. By that I mean know your subject well. There’s enough information on the NMA web site and all the postings that you should have enough “cannon fodder” for a long time. You don’t need to be an author but writing is a communication media and as such the better you write the better your going to legitimize yourself to the person on the receiving end. It hurts our cause when you go off half cocked. It’s not good enough to just state that you hate speed traps. E.g. don’t act stupid. I like to not only state the obvious problems with traffic control but offer suggestions. Simply complaining about something and offering no solutions will not impress anyone. I believe the NMA has good suggestions on do’s and don’ts and how to communicate with your legislators. Focus on a single issue. Don’t confuse the situation by throwing a bunch of issues in your communication. Keep your communication concise and short as possible.
Here’s an example things you could work on in your individual states that could make a difference; In legislative circles recognized as traffic control reform; Lets just take one of my pet peeves, traffic ticket quota’s. In my state of Oklahoma they are legal. That’s something that needs to change and it’s a easy argument to make. I actually was able to get a bill introduced a few years ago but it couldn’t climb out of the committee. It’s something simple that anybody can understand and why it should be illegal? It’s unethical for starters. Unethical behavior is generally considered inappropriate in any governmental environment. For those of you who already have quota laws, how do you make them more effective. In doing my research from what I’ve been able to glean from the posts and articles on the Internet, some quota laws are not very effective. Do your research and find out why your particular states’ quota law(s) don’t work. Then devise amendments to the existing law to correct those loopholes that allow law enforcement and municipalities to get around. Another part of this strategy I believe can be used to our advantage is a split can be developed between municipal governments and police chiefs (management) on one side. Conversely I would think that most law enforcement officers would like to be completely free of any kind of quota system. Believe it or not, I’ve concluded that there are some officers that hate to write traffic tickets about as much as we like to be on the receiving end. Quota’s are forced on them by police management. Does it not make sense then that some reduction of speed traps could be expected by eliminating this unethical practice?
Another project. If your state has no speed trap law, work on getting one passed in your state legislature. If you do have a speed trap law, work on getting the threshold reduced or restrict the amount of revenue a municipality can keep. E.g. the conflict of interest. Conflict of Interest is another easy argument and it absolutely exists with traffic control . Further, lets get some transparency going in traffic control. Lets require all traffic courts to classify this data and report it to the state for Internet publishing. Consider, why is it that you can find out every aspect about accidents, just don’t listen to NHTSA or the insurance institutes, yet not the enforcement side of the equation? Why the absence of this information? Why do municipalities treat this data almost like a state secret (and doing a pretty good job of it). Could the revelation of this information help to dispel the notion that all these speeding citations are senseless for accident prevention but very lucrative for the enforcing entity? I sense it would.
These are but a few examples of how we as members of the driving public and the NMA can turn the tables in our favor for a change. I’m sure many of you can expand on this. Lets start making noise.
When NMA posts a new story in these blogs, they should provide the email, physical address and phone numbers of the agencies involved, as well as the email, physical address and phone numbers of the state legislators, mayor and city councils, or county commissioners. Outrage needs to be reflected toward targets where it will do some good but it needs to be done quickly. I urge the responders to keep it clean, keep it articulate, review your post for misspellings and poor grammar.
There’s a common theme that runs through all these blog/posts. Start with any subject and it’s usually ends talking about speed traps or speeding and the police. There’s enough hot air generated to run a city. I say “hot air” not in a negative sense but because hot air is a form of energy. The million dollar question here and now has to be; how do we take all this energy and convert it into doing something about the problem?
We’ve sliced it, diced it, massaged it. We’ve rolled it and knead it. We’ve debated and argued it until we’re blue in the face. How much do we need to further this discussion when we already know what most of it boils down. We’ve got an abundance of input. We’ve analyzed it a thousand different ways. We’ve rehashed it a thousand times. Now, isn’t it time to do something about it? Talk is cheap. When are we going to turn our word processors on the politicians who run the show. When are we going to inundate the politicians with emails of protest. When are we going start making noise in the right places. Now that we’ve generated perhaps ten’s of thousands of words in all these NMA blogs (and others), isn’t it finally time to act? We see the outcry. Where’s the brainstorm. Where’s the bloggs that allow us to toss idea’s around?
Why can’t some of you from the same state organize and focus on issues. I’ve tried but my state of Oklahoma is hopeless but perhaps your’s is not. Lets see a test case on some state. Put the pressure on. Get some legislation passed that disincentives speed traps. Lets get passionate about finally doing something. Ideas?
In the mid 1950s, right after the Turner Turnpike opened between Tulsa and OKC, there was an OHP trooper who used to get right up behind drivers at night without even headlights. One night a little old lady saw something in her mirror, panicked and hit her brakes. The trooper hit her, killing himself and injuring her. I don’t know the legal proceedings thereafter (because I was only 8 or so). I do know that they don’t do that anymore.
Try slamming on the brakes when the pig is tailgating you right when the light turns yellow. The pig thinks you will just go through but when he rearends you he has NO excuse ! You stopped for a yellow !
FEDUPYO seaks to the truth of a different, but highly related issue in the fact that Democracy in America remains in name only.
I LIVE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY AND HAVE HAD TO DEAL WITH SLOWING TRAFFIC DUE TO OVERBUILDING, NOW WE HAVE THESE #$*%&*!CAMERAS TO SLOW IT EVEN MORE! PEOPLE ARE SPEEDING TO MAKE UP FOR THE LOST TIME WHEREVER THEY CAN. I HAVEN’T BEEN ON TIME IN 3 YEARS. THESE “OFFICERS” SHOULD BE FORCED TO PAY THEIR FINES. IF THEY DON’T, WE – THE TAXPAYER, WILL END UP PAYING FOR THEIR TICKETS ANYWAY. THESE CAMERAS ARE ONLY A MONEY MAKING DEVICE FOR THE COUNTY, AS THEY ARE ALL INSTALLED ON DECLINES WHICH FORCE YOU TO BRAKE BEFORE THE CAMERA. I FEEL SORRY FOR OUT OF TOWNERS, AS THE SPEED CAMERA WARNING SIGNS ARE ONLY 100 FEET BEFORE THE CAMERA – NOT ENOUGH TIME TO SLOW DOWN. THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT PUT ONE ON MY ROAD WHERE THERE HASN’T BEEN AN ACCIDENT FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER AND I’VE BEEN THERE FOR 20+ YEARS. ONE OF THE COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBERS SAID “IT’S FOR MOTORISTS SAFETY”.THEY JUST WANT YOUR MONEY TO COVER THEIR FAILURE TO MANAGE A BUDGET LIKE EVERYONE ELSE HAS TO DO. HELL, THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE EVEN DECIDED TO INSTALL A NEW $65,000.00 PRIVATE BATHROOM IN HIS OFFICE WHILE TRYING TO CUT $300 MILLION OUT OF THE BUDGET. I THINK THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES THOUGHT PROCESS IS “LET THE MIDDLE CLASS PAY FOR IT!” I PAY SOME OF THE HIGHEST TAXES IN THE COUNTRY AND THEY JUST KEEP HITTING US WITH NEW FEES AND TAXES, BUT THE COPS DON’T HAVE TO PAY. I’M JUST ABOUT READY TO PACK UP AND MOVE, EVEN THOUGH MY FAMILY AND ELDERLY MOTHER (WHO NEEDS MY ASSISTANCE) LIVE IN THIS AREA. LIVING HERE HAS BECOME DEPRESSING AND OPPRESSIVE. THANKS BIG BROTHER, HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR BATHROOM!
"So basically, they’ve decided to exploit the flaw in the system that they helped create. The article continues:"
Define some of these words: they, exploit, flaw and most importantly HELPED CREATE.
Do you really think for a second that rank and file police helped create the photo radar system???? They don't like it anymore than the rest of the people. You do know that EVERY cop has to identify the operator of a vehicle he issues a summons to, except if it's some type of photo system.
So, setting aside all the cop bashing and tin flashing these cops are pointing out a way that ANY citizen in this area can get out of THEIR speeding ticket (they know it's not proper)
Who do you….as "regular" drivers believe you'll have a better chance of getting a warning from: the photo ticket writer or some face to face cop?
Finally….10 over the limit??? Give me a break, everybody does that. Most complainers forget to mention the exact speed limit they got nabbed for. 15, 20 or 25+ over the limit. Unsafe in many circumstances.
I agree. I’ve been with large numbers of cops in my reserve unit and socially. The number one thing they whine about is when another cop doesn’t give them ‘professional courtesy’ when they are caught speeding.
The police will never be held to the same standards as the public…this traffic issue is minor compared to the “justification” of police-caused deaths….just look at how many police go scott free when they cause a death with gunfire when the ‘eminent threat’ they face turns out to be some ridiculous lame nothing…the cops can violate any traffic law they want to…it’s called “in the line of duty”.
I can’t wait until they start putting distancing measuring control devices on the vehicles to sense distance to the vehicle in front of you. You could basically set the distance and let your vehicle follow the one in front of you. It should cut down on a lot of rear enders. I believe the technology is already available, I don’t understand why it’s not being employed. LIDAR is just laser measuring equipment that measures the distance a vehicle travels in a given amount of time and calculates the speed.
There were studies of ways to avoid accidents, and it was discovered that people of small stature, novices, people sitting too far back, and the elderly did not brake hard enough, early enough, and/or maintain high level deceleration.
So ‘BrakeAssist’ came about.
In the early W210 E-class, Mercedes implementation was a solenoid that interacts with the brake booster. BrakeAssist works by applying maximum power assist. This more than likely will push the brake system into ABS activation. So long as people remember ‘stomp, stay, steer’ things will work out fine, and the car STOPS, now.
Now, how does MB determine when to activate the solenoid? There is a sensor to determine the position/velocity of the brake pedal. If you jam on the brakes with sufficient velocity, viola you are effectively the Incredible Hulk.
BMW had BrakeAssist on the 1997 5-series. Their implementation was based on the ABS module. If BrakeAssist is called for, the ABS goes into maximum actuation.
The only way to deactivate BrakeAssist (once triggered) is to completely lift off, so the brake light switch is turned off.
I had first hand knowledge of this. I had a BMW 530i to 120mph and jammed the brakes [fully]. I modulated brake intensity at 80mph, yet there wasn’t any reduction in rate of deceleration. This puzzled me, as I though the ABS was malfunctioning. So I completely lifted at 60mph.
Vehicles that have BrakeAssist should be required to have an adaptive LED CHMSL brake light. When BrakeAssist is activated, by the computer-not the driver, the following driver should have a fighting chance to not rear end the car/truck. S/he needs to know that vehicle will decelerating at their tires limit.
So if you have all-season tires, and the person in front of you has grippy summer tires, you will be at fault for the machinations of a computer, and the complete obsolescence of FMVSS108 [the one regarding lights]
What do you mean by “Brake Assist”
I assume you are not refering to the electronic “BAS” systems on newer cars…
Tailgating cops have been a real problem for a long time. The Brake Assist really works. A friend of mine used it and got a new car from the state, got the trooper fired, and collected a nice cash settlement in the deal.
Wouldn’t advise doing it unless you are prepared for a real bang up experience though. Could hurt a bit.
My golden rule is if a cop starts following me, I pull off and stop at the first opportunely. Either give me a ticket or get off my a…..s. There’s absolutely no excuse for that activity, I’ve also had it happen to me a couple times.
Tailgating cops?
Get Brake Assist.
You then call 911 and report that you have been rear ended, another police officer is then dispatched [and an ambulance]
Cop gets fired.
The police are the biggest liar on the face of the earth so they could easily beat a ticket in court. If you don’t believe me pay close attention the shows like “Cops” and you’ll see even the narrator can’t tell the truth most of the time.It’s a joke when they tell us not to lie to them because they don’t like liars but under the scope of the law they are allowed to lie in their crime investigations. There’s no way you can lie on your job on a daily basis and not become a liar the rest of the time, you become what you practice. Just how many of you have actually caught a cop telling the truth when you’ve been stopped for a minor violation? Probably none because that’s not their “MO”.
Screw the speeding cameras, and all the money they charge people. If we don’t have enough money to pay cops to watch for speeders, then maybe speeding isn’t a high priority. these cameras are just another way that private interprises cost us money in our private lives. Stop this crap.
[...] England, the cops give the thumbs up to speeding cameras. In Maryland, the cops are not only refusing to pay for speeding tickets, as advised by their union, they’re… In response to the "gesture of defiance," County Council Member, Phil Andrews, said, [...]
The “Brass Pass” is how a co-worker of mine who became a cop referred to his badge.
That intimidation by tailgating is very popular with the California Highway Patrol. I’ve experienced it several times where a CHP car comes up behind me fast and then hangs inches from my bumper. No lights; I change lanes and he stays with me for three or four minutes only to veer off and tailgate another vehicle.
I can only assume they are trying to pressure the driver into speeding or swerving so they have an excuse to pull you over.
OR, he could be running your tag over the air (which sometimes takes a few moments to get a return)…
That’s one I can relate to:
I got so tired of (location not disclosed) police cars tailgating me, that I almost “lunched” several, anytime I had two or more witnesses in my vehicle, (which was a “sleeper”; a virtual “Muscle Car” that didn’t LOOK like one; it was an “antique truck”, with almost as much horsepower as a fighter jet; “It’d pass anything but a gas station!”); I’d hit the gas & pull away, and when the cop car would try to catch up, I’d hit the brakes, (making the brake lights come on), while putting the accelerator on the floor, which made the back tires squeal a little & some smoke would puff off them, which gave the appearance that I’d just “stood on the brakes” and was making a “panic stop”, while I was actually pulling away from the police car, although that screeching & white smoke from my tires was a “sure thing” to make the cop think he was about to be “lunch”, since he thought he’d hit the back of my 5-ton antique truck’s iron-bar bumper, and of course, I DID have two witnesses in MY car, (this was long before video cameras or “dash-cams”). After awhile, word spread, and I didn’t get tailgated by police in that area anymore. It’s a really “telling” indication that something’s wrong, when it takes “stooping to a lower level” to get someone off your tail, especially when that “somone” was a sworn Police Officer who was supposed to be “setting the proper example”!
(The other “fun” thing that two friends I knew would do, was take out their “kit-car” Maserati-Replica, with their calibrated speedometer, and they’d drive two mph lower than the speed limit; Since that’s perfectly legal, there was technically nothing the local cops could do, although once, a police car was tailgating them, and their engine seems to have “died” at the same time their clutch jammed, and the police car couldn’t stop in time to avoid rear-ending the fiberglass “Maserati”;
That cop was probably making payments for the next three lifetimes, for the “Maserati” he hit from behind, as well as his police car!
The scene in the courtroom was priceless, while the Judge “read the riot act” to the cop who was driving!
It cost that cop about $12,000 in total damages, to both the car he hit, (since those fiberglass kit-cars practically “disintegrate” when they’re hit that hard), as well as to his police car’s front end! No bonus for HIM that year!
{ He said he did too and that was why he became a cop, so he could drive fast and not get in trouble for it.}
Yea dan, we used to have a part time officer that worked with us and he bragged about the same thing. We see speeding officers here in Okla. all the time. We don’t think much about it anymore. If you challenge a cop on the Internet on the issue they come up with all kinds of excuses. Even if they are on a legitimate “run” they rarely have their sirens and or lights on. Here’s what I’m talking about; http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7654&whichpage=1
The other day on the way to work (I work afternoons) I saw a “unmarked” cop car going about 90 mph down one of our local expressways, no lights or siren, trying to catch someone who he finally pulled over about three miles up the road. I was in the middle lane of three lanes, early in his pursuit so I could see everything from behind. Traffic was moderate. It was the middle of the afternoon. He’s flying up behind cars, switching lanes, back and forth, driving like a manic for those three miles…with no hint to the drivers he’s a cop. The traffic was literally confused and in disarray in the vicinity he was driving. Unmarked cop cars for misdemeanor traffic stops should be stopped. Imposers are increasingly taking advantage of the situation. Law Enforcement will do anything to write tickets now-a-days. Follow the money.
Joe, you’re so right. I worked for a municipal Police & Fire/Rescue Communications Dept. in Okla., some 30 years ago, and when I was hired, I learned that as long as ANY city employee was either in a city vehicle, or at least carried their City Vehicle Driver’s Permit, (separate from a required State-issued Drivers License), which only indicated that we’d taken the required safety course & had permission to drive the City vehicles, then as long as we showed that to any Officer who pulled us over or stopped to see why we were parked on the median or up on a curb, etc., they didn’t write a ticket; This was because there were SO many City employees who’d gotten tickets for not doing anything wrong, that the City Employees’ Union went to court about it – (the City was a “new” City, which they were very proud of; It also meant that they were still getting the newer vehicles painted with the “Official” City logo and so on, so if we were up on the curb or like that, it looked like we’d done SOMETHING wrong, even when all we were doing was working on a Fire Pull-Station on the corner, and had tried to not block the intersection by putting the truck up on the median);
The Judge who the matter fell to, decided that “If one City Employee could violate the traffic laws, and ‘usually’ were doing so in the course of their normal duties, then it was only right that ALL City Employees be given that same ‘courtesy”, so we never got tickets either, even though we weren’t even Law Enforcement of any kind! We were just the people who kept the radios, sirens, & lights in the Police cars & Fire Equip., Ambulances, etc. working, but even if all someone did was sweep the street, as long as they “just happened” to have their City Driver’s Permit along with their regular Drivers License, & handed both to the Officer who pulled them over, the ticket book was quickly put away, and the Officer returned to their cruiser with a wave & a “Y’all have a good one!”…
Now, I thought I’d heard them all before I went out there back then, but THAT one “took the brass ring” for me!
One of the things that we had to do after repairing a radio or the lights or siren in a City Vehicle, was to take it out for a “test drive”; This was a REQUIREMENT, we HAD to do it, (despite our objections of not being sworn Law Enforcement Officers, and of the fact that it was dangerous for us to be checking out something under the dash while we were driving the car on the highway, because there was almost never two people available to have one drive while the other did the testing), so we’d be rolling along at 5 MPH BELOW the speed limit on I-244, with traffic coming up behind us, and every car on the road almost wrecked when they’d hit the brakes, thinking that their speedometer was wrong, since a marked police car was going slower than they were… “I love a parade!”
Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t deliberately go slow to cause a wreck, or a near-wreck, but because we were understaffed, and while I was driving that marked police car, I was supposed to also test every function of the lights, siren, & radio, WHILE I WAS DRIVING THE POLICE CAR! No wonder other motorists thought that we were “real” police officers, especially when we’d forget to turn off the light-bar, (which I did all too often in my City-Issued pickup truck!); We tried to wait until there were no cars around us when we tested the sirens & lights, but some times of day, on those highways, there’s always SOME traffic, as I’m sure you know!
That was one of the things that made me happy to have left that job.
As far as “abuse of power”, I always felt that was the biggest “abuse of Judicial power” I’d ever seen;
Instead of having all of the Police “set the example”, the Police Union raised heck with the Judges until they let ALL of the City employees become “ticket-proofed” as well as the Law Enforcement Officers, and that’s just plain wrong!
Stay safe, and thanks for being one of the few who “know what’s really going on”, and who aren’t afraid to tell others about just how unfair, if not downright corrupt, “The System” can get, & has been!
Everyone knows cops are the biggest crooks out there.
Check out the website copswritingcops.com and you'll see the cops howl in indignation when another cop actually writes them a ticket. It's amusing at first, but quite sickening after a while.
Now it's a machine writing them a ticket. They've lost their thin blue line that lets them get away with their offenses. They're being treated the same way they treat us, and they don't like it.
I’ve always wondered just what are the valid reasons for cops to exceed the speed limit? One sheriffs deputy pulled me over for speeding and asked me if I liked to drive fast, to which I replied I did like driving fast. He said he did too and that was why he became a cop, so he could drive fast and not get in trouble for it. I didn’t say anything further but he left me thinking that there aren’t supposed to be two sets of rules. That is one of the reasons I could never be a cop. I couldn’t be so hypocritical as to give someone a $120 ticket for doing something I’ve done so often.
FOLKS,
WOW !!!! THIS IS JUST TOO GOOD !!! EVEN WHEN THE COPS CAN’T USE THEIR “GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARDS” WHEN CAUGHT COMMITTING A TRAFFIC VIOLATION, THEY FLIP OFF THE CAMERA KNOWING THEY HAVE YET ANOTHER MECHANISM OF SUBTERFUGE TO BEAT THE SYSTEM.
WE ARE TRULY “THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS”.
RICK GOLD