Ticket Camera Company Illegally Threatens Florida Drivers
When a city signs a contract with a ticket camera company — even though cities often insist it’s not the case — they’re delegating law enforcement activities to a private company. The story below, from TheLedger.com, shows just one of the dangers of this kind of agreement.
Here’s an excerpt:
The red-light camera company contracted by Lakeland has been telling ticketed drivers a hold can be placed on their vehicle registration if they fail to pay their fine.
But a city spokesman said that isn’t part of the city’s agreement with Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions.
That miscommunication has left [local motorist] Linda Boyle confused. [...]
On more than one occasion, Boyle called and was told if she failed to pay she might not be able to renew the registration on her 2000 silver Chevrolet pickup truck, even though her son was the one who was driving.
The city clearly knows that they can’t place holds on vehicle registrations, but this setup lets the ticket camera company — which doesn’t have to answer to the public — take the heat for the city.
Meanwhile the city uses this misinformation to bully drivers into paying tickets that are themselves illegal (the Florida Attorney General has stated that photo enforcement is not legal in the state of Florida.)
A Ledger reporter called ATS’s Violation Processing Service Center Thursday and spoke to a customer service representative who confirmed the policy.
The employee said the company implemented the policy about a year ago and that it was only used as an “end-of-the-line process.” She said that in the event a ticketed driver doesn’t pay, ATS’s collection agency could place a hold on the vehicle owner’s registration.
But city spokesman Kevin Cook said the company’s customer service employees misspoke, and Florida law doesn’t allow that to happen.
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“We aren’t even using them as a collection agency,” he said. “They are probably saying what is true for 99 percent of their municipalities. We are a lot different than most of their clients.”
Actually, no red-light camera company can issue a registration hold for citations issued in Florida, according to the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
“That only applies to parking citations and toll violations, but not red-light cameras,” department spokesman Capt. Mark Welch told The Ledger.
As the section of the article above shows, this is not an isolated incident or a mistake. The ticket camera company is intentionally misleading drivers.
Cook said he has apologized to Boyle for the confusion and talked with company officials and the situation has been resolved. ATS told Cook they would be reviewing the incident and using Boyle’s case as a training tool for their employees.
What do you think the odds are that this is actually going to change their process? Hopefully enough motorists will see this story to keep them honest, but the more likely scenario is that the company will back off for a month until the bad publicity dies down and then go back to their old ways.
You can read the full story from TheLedger.com here.
You deserve every speeding ticket you get. You can complain all you want after the fact, but it's true. Find out why.
It's one of the "great" American past times: complaining about unfair speeding tickets. There are two types of people when it comes to complaining about this particular type of traffic ticket. Which group are you in?
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Isn’t it strange how a certain speed saves lives!
Where I live now in Fayetteville, NC 35mph in a school zone is the life saving speed.
In Des Moines, Ia where I grew up 25mph in a school zone is the speed that saves lives.
But no where I have a seen a 40 or 45mph school zone!
MacK so are you saying then that no one would ever drive 40 mph or higher in a school zone? In a school zone the slower cars are driving the safer it is for the kids. Iowa believes that kids need to be protected better than NC. Your stopping distance goes up dramatically from 25 mph to 35 mph. Also since I have never heard of anyone getting a ticket for 1 mph over the limit except the people that lie about it here, if there is a 35 mph limit you are ok to do at least 38 mph. That is very fast in many school zones unless the visibility is very very good and few kids are ever there.
Oh, nevermind, I see what you were saying about the psuedo-arbitrary nature of speed limits, totally ignorant of their actual surroundings.
Ok Ranall I see you are using my Id now. Who else complains that they ahould be able to drive up to 15 mph over the limit in school zones.
As usual, I’m sorry to say, I think Randy is missing the point. With government and governmental agencies the only entities legally entitled to use lethal, if necessary, force (including but not limited to fines, incarceration, and other such harassment), to achieve its goals, don’t you think they ought to (a) limit their goals to punishing crimes that involve an actual injury to life, liberty, or property of another individual, and (b) not be permitted to fob off enforcement of the laws they themselves have passed onto a private enterprise that has a vested interest in peoples’ disregard for such laws; and (c) be expected to get it right the first time? Half the average person’s income vanishes in taxes and other governmental seizures of one kind or another. We ought not have to put up with abuse such as this from those who think themselves better than the average schlub. Remember, laws need to exist for a purpose; the illusion of safety is not a legitimate purpose. And laws passed to fatten governmental coffers or companies with such a vested interest only serve to engender disrespect for law in general.
well said
Brother John you miss the point.
a) excessive unneeded speeding, running red lights and other traffic infractions does cause injury to life, liberty, and property of other individuals. I guess as an example it is ok to shoot your gun into the air many times in a big city and only be cited if a bullet comes down and kills someone.
b) Get it right the first time. People and those that work for any company or the government can make mistakes. Have you never made a mistake? If someone makes a mistake and breaks the law then you can punish that person or company. If the company is setting the policy that breaks the law you can punish the company or dismiss them.
c) Again, can you say that you have never made a mistake? Half of your income goes towards taxes? You must be in a very high income tax bracket.
I guess you do not like to have any roads, help the elderly survive, have a national defense, have social security for the low income people to make it and hundreds of other things.
You believe that laws do nothing. You would rather have more drunks on the roadway and more people running red lights and more people driving 65 mph in what is now a 45 mph zone or 40 mph in a school zone.
You do not know what you are talking about. That is hard to believe though because you never make a mistake.
Well said, Brother John.
Unfortunately, that requires making decisions based on data and peer-reviewed science, instead of lobbying, money, and hidden “studies”… and the current system isn’t setup for such logic. Hell most people can’t even understand logic.
Speaking of which, maybe it’s just time to ignore Randy… he hasn’t posted a logical thought yet, so why should we bother acknowledging him at all?
Schwinn it does not take many studies to show that drunks cause accidents, red light runners cause accidents. speeders cause more than their fair share of accidents. Why is it that these groups are charged higher insurance fees? The reason is that they cost insurance companies more in claims. If that was not true there would be insuance companies that would gladly take on the new customers and charge less than the others but it will never happen because they do cost more.
George, what can you expect. According to you almost everyone on this board is a criminal because they voluntarily break laws.
I love this site. If anyone in the world makes a mistake then NMA jumps on it. Then when they realize they are wrong about a certain state law and according to the article it said they would have been ” true for 99 percent of their municipalities” .
Then they said
”
Cook said he has apologized to Boyle for the confusion and talked with company officials and the situation has been resolved. ATS told Cook they would be reviewing the incident and using Boyle’s case as a training tool for their employees.”
That is not good enough for NMA. They say that they will do it again. Why not complain when someone makes a mistake after they realized they made a mistake rather than trashing someone without any evidence that they want to do wrong.
If NMA was in charge of our court system everyone would be thrown in jail for life because they are sure the person will break the law again.
Maybe NMA is right. If someone is convicted of DUI they should take their license away from them forever because they are sure they will do it again.
TL;DR.
Criminals organizations lies, who would have thought?
I read an actual fact from a book called things the goverment doesn’t want you to know!
The speed limits across the USA were not created to Save our Lives, they were actually created during the First Gas Crisis/shortage to save Gas!
Rich your book is crazy. Yes the 55 mph limit was put in after the initial gas crisis but that has nothing to do with limits that are under 55 mph and in almost all cases the 55 mph limit does not apply so what is the point of the book? The other fact is that right after the limits were increased above the 55 mph limit the death rate went up so what is the point of the book? That book was not written by that guy that they have been trying to get off TV for years for breaking the law and then he finds some loophole to keep on going?
By the way it is not a secret to anyone or even unknown to anyone that during the gas crisis the limits were reduced to save fuel so what is the point of the book?