Red-Light Camera Mistakenly Tickets Soldier Serving In Iraq
The majority of people are at least somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of a machine like a red-light camera writing traffic tickets on its own. Realizing this, cities that install ticket cameras always assure concerned citizens that the tickets will not be automated and that an officer will look at each ticket that comes through and make sure that a mistake wasn’t made.
In theory, it sounds like a legitimate protection for motorists against unfair tickets.
In practice, because of the large volume of tickets that the cameras generate and limited staffing (to boost camera profitability), the officers supervising the ticketing process end up just trying to get through as many tickets as possible in the shortest amount of time.
This inevitably leads to simple errors that cause innocent people to spend hours in court fighting tickets that they would never have received had an actual officer been there to give the ticket instead of a machine.
King 5 News in Seattle, Washington uncovered an clear example of this in action:
Arnie Henyan knows all about those cameras and the tickets that come with them.
“The first one was dated May 28, and I got it in early June,” he said. “Three months later, I got another one… Early January, I received a third one, from the city of SeaTac. Same car, same plate.”
The tickets were issued to his son, who owns a 1998 Honda Coupe with the license 470-MOI. Arnie fought the tickets, insisting his son was innocent.
“I kind of laughed, because it’s an impossibility,” Henyan said. “He’s in Iraq. Has been since April.”
How did this happen three times with officers reviewing every ticket by hand?
So how did the sergeant get ticketed while at war?
If you look closely at the photo taken by the red light camera: the license plate is actually 470-MDI – not MOI. Officers approve all tickets before they go out. But both Lakewood and SeaTac misread the “D” for an “O.” And they missed another clue: The photos show a silver sedan running a red.
“It’s a silver car and my son’s is black. It’s a four-door car and my son’s is a two-door coupe,” Arnie Henyan said.
The defense offered by Lakewood Police Department:
Lakewood police say not all that car data is sent to them for the verification process.
“Our officers are approving hundreds of these every week,” said Lt. Heidi Hoffman, of Lakewood police. “I think it could improve if the verification system showed more complete vehicle registration data on the screen that our officers are using to process these citations.”
This is not acceptable.
If the police department doesn’t have the staff and resources to safeguard the public from unfair tickets, they should never have installed the cameras.
It’s easy for camera promoters to say, “Well, if you get an unfair ticket, you can always go fight it in court and it will be dismissed.” But in reality, there is a cost to an individual when they are forced to fight an unfair ticket. The process involves extra paperwork, a trip to court, and taking off time from work. That’s why many times people just decide it’s less of a hassle to write a check even when they’ve done nothing wrong.
The bottom line is that an innocent driver should never have to fix the government’s mistake. Especially not on their own time. And especially not when it could have easily been avoided if the city’s focus had been on safety instead of automatic revenue generators like red-light ticket cameras.
Image Credit: Dan4th
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Its about time that we the motorists can claim damages from the Traffic authorities for bad tickets. That will make the authorities responsible, as it falls under the same situation of a business putting his thumb on the weighing scales in order to get an advantage. These government and private enterprise contracts have gone too far. Damn you cameras and governments and private enterprise and all you who prey on the common motorists.
I have a very related story about my personal experience with being wrongfully ticketed by a camera. It is already on my blog here: http://www.farmdevil.net/?p=76
thank you to mr. young and the retired cop for confirming what I already highly suspected. there really is no hope. Give me liberty or death.
Sorry for the bad typing. Not a clerical position here.
In reference to JohnB. Keep in mind that our Constitution does not cover persons from outside the US, that are IN another country. If they are monitoring outside communications coming in from other countries, unless you are a terrorist, I wouldnt’ mind if they monitored a message somone might get from countries such as Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Somalia or anywhere else where extremeist seem to want to congregate. (Or maybe there are little black helicoptors flying overhead right now transmitting radio waves into your brain to see your thoughts.) However, if I may be so bold to remind you that this was a forum about Red Light Cameras. If there is such an outcry about it, do as was suggested earlier and go to your City government, demand hearings on the safety concerns that are brought up here. Some are very valid, some are persoanl in nature. I am very skeptical about them as well, but I am not a lunatic about it either. Just make sure you have your facts straight or the City attorney’s will eat you for lunch because that is their job. I do not disagree that it is a revenue generating machine. I’ve seen it here and been caught myself and help generate that revenue (yes even cops get tickets). There are a lot of freedoms being eroded away by governement and certain politicians, all in the name of making the streets safer, are making a lot of money from it. Too many liberal judges making their own laws from the bench and too many politicians, conservative and liberal alike, with their hands in someone elses pants and not doing the will of the people. But if you do want to make a difference there are a couple of ways to do it. Vote your conscience and be involved in your community, not just sit back and take it.
And like it or not, or “buy in to the tripe” that driving is a privilege. Try getting a license by failing the test and then claim it’s your constitutional right. It’s just the way it is, regardless of the most popular means of transportation or your own personal belief on the matter.
As far as other enforcement, most cops will enforce all of the ones mentioned, with the exception of the failing to pay close attention, or our acronym “DWHUA”. We ahven’t quite foudn a test for that yet. We suually ahve to wait until someone get run over before we realize that was actually the issue. If you or anyone here knows how to look at someone driving regularly that isn’t paying attention (except for the obvious of reading a book, putting on makeup, texting, turning around facing the rear to get something) we would really appreciate it. But if you really want to get a topic going, start a forum on talking on the cell phone and driving at the same time. There’s a free speech issue that should be addressed.
If the purpose of redlight camera is to prevent accidents, why then, do they shorten the yellow light to change faster. How many more tickets do they generate for a 3 second yellow vs a 4 second yellow light. Maybe to generate more revenue.
Kirk, what planet did you come form?? Maybe you should go back, gather some data on “shortening yellow lights” and post that data on this site.
The cameras don’t ticket people who are in the intersection and still need make the turn when the light changes. By the way, in the intersection is not a half block away accelerating as fast as the car will accelerate and then going through the red light as someone going through the intersection on green (legally) gets slammed.
If our politicians want to know exactly how the general public feels about; then they should put the issue on an election ballot —- in a general election and see what people really want. Anti-camera votes would probably garner upwards of 30-35% of the vote!!!
I want a car with 2 cameras and a “black box”
One camera with a Forward view and another camera with a rear view. The “black box” will show my speed, seatbelt use, and any braking. Then if I get a ticket I can review the issue and if I’m guilty I’ll pay but if any of the above clears me I’ll fight till I’m broke! I almost forgot a most important point. Ialso want AUDIO, VERY GOOD AUDIO!
I just don’t understand it anymore. What has happened to everyone?? I can remember just 10 years ago we didn’t seem to have these kinds of problems. Now everyone has a problem with everyone else, suspects the worst and no one seems to want to take responsibility for their actions! It seems like we’re all falling apart! If you do something wrong (speeding, running a red light) then you should be punished no matter how they went about getting you your ticket. If you didn’t know the national speed limit or not to run a red light then you should not have gotten your license to begin with (we all have to pass that test). Stop complaining about how things have to be run. Times are changing and that is a result. Maybe it’s not safe for the officiers to walk the street anymore, we have done that to ourselves. They are just protecting themselves like we would do for ourselves. Maybe they have to hide because they know if we saw them that we would slow down and then speed up when we were out of their sights. I’ve seen it happen so many times. Haven’t we said that mankind is always evolving? Maybe this is just part of it. I believe that. Sure, there may be some bugs in the beginning. With new things there usually is. But then we learn how to fix it; with the cameras maybe they are coming up with a way for a clearer image. Who knows? I just believe that people should start taking responsibility for their actions and maybe stuff like the red light cameras wouldn’t be necessary.
To Ima Safedriver, I live in Southern California and it seems like no one signals anymore, and people seem to think it’s ok to tailgate. I wish more cops would write tickets for these law breakers. I don’t have any problems getting a ticket if an officer gives me a ticket because I know I made a mistake, it’s just those redlight cameras I don’t like.
If the purpose of redlight camera is to prevent accidents, why then, do they shorten the yellow light to change faster. How many more tickets do they generate for a 3 second yellow vs a 4 second yellow light. Maybe to generate more revenue.
As an officer too (seems like more cops on this site than anything else LOL!), what is the answer? Everyone here seems to bitch and complain but no one offers an answer. What should we do? How should we enforce the laws in the US? Remember, what matters to you may not be important to the next guy. John B is apparently upset by “following too close and failure to signal” I stopped a driver today for “failure to signal” and you’d thought I’d beat his wife and molested his child! He went off screaming and hollering like some Cops episode! The point is, what matters to you may not matter to the next person. If you want to make a difference complain to your elected people. Give them ideas to FIX the problem. Don’t just bitch!
Carl Dapp writes:
{Oh, and J.Young…it’s been proven through years of tried and true research that speeding, or traveling above the speed limit in a certain areas (or any area, for that matter) would cause the severity of a crash to be magnified due to the harder impact.}
That isn’t the argument set forth by the safety Nazis, except as a last ditch effort to salvage it. Their argument is that higher speeds increase the frequency of crashes. Empirical evidence tells us otherwise.
The physics are not in question here. While it is true that higher speeds produce more kinetic energy than slower speeds, we have also created technological improvements to cars and roadways to mitigate the damage so that we could go faster. We have radial-ply tires, disc brakes, rack & pinion steering, halogen lighting, airbags, seat belts, interiors absent sharp edges and pointed objects, shatter-proof glass, etc. that allow much faster speeds. Likewise, we have divided roadways, median barriers, lateral guard rails, reflective paint, large signs, changeable message boards, collapsible barriers protecting crossover piers, halogen and sodium vapor lighting, limited access, fewer intersections, etc that were developed to promote faster travel.
Would you consider a crash in a 1952 Ford at 30 mph safer than a crash in a Volvo S80 at 60 mph? Is not the reduced exposure due to time reduced with higher speeds?
Note that higher speeds have a positive economic value. Slowing drivers down costs money, lots of it. The NMSL cost this nation a trillion dollars.
{ So whine all you want about LE and their toys…who’s doing what they’re not supposed to be doing? Don’t be upset that you got caught not doing what you were supposed to be doing.}
LE is supposed to “protect and serve,” but that has long since gone the way of the dodo. They are not supposed to be concentrating on enforcing bad laws.