Red Light Photo Enforcement

 

This topic is one of my favorites. If you have not read my web page about Jury Duty then I invite you to do so after this page. Since you are reading this, then you have received a red light photo by U.S. mail or you know someone who has had their license plate photographed going through a red light. Let’s get started by covering the basics. Running a red light is wrong and is illegal. Should a law enforcement officer witness you running a red light then he can issue you a traffic citation. We all know this and there is no argument about the former statement. What people do not know will surprise you. I live in Texas and the rest of this web page will assume you live in Texas too. In Texas we have a law for red lights. The law also goes into detail that if you are in an intersection when the light turns red you may proceed through with the right of way as long as fifty percent of your car is over the white line. Ok, that is simple enough. Every driver has been caught in this situation at one time or another. But before we continue about this topic please read and understand the following two items.

 

Ordinance
An ordinance is a local law. Although the method of enacting an ordinance will vary from municipality to municipality, they are generally passed by a legislative body (city council) and signed by a city executive (mayor), and subsequently enforced by local police and district attorneys.

Resolution
This is non-binding, unenforceable, statement made by a municipalities legislative body. It is often not signed or endorsed by the city executive. A resolution is often used to persuade other legislative bodies (State or Federal) to adopt legislation that is beyond the powers of the local body.

 

It is not a secret that Police Officers write speeding tickets and the money paid from speeding tickets generates millions and millions of dollars for every city. It did not take long for some asshole to dream up a new way of making money. This new way is called ‘Red Light Photo Enforcement’. Now in Texas the company that puts up the cameras and sends the photo and letters to people is called Redflex Traffic Systems. Redflex is a company and nothing more. Now what you need to understand is that just one camera at an intersection can generate 1 to 1.5 million dollars a year. When you look around do you see just one? Most intersections have either two or four cameras. This way, two cameras can photograph the front or back of each car just in case. Like the North Richland Hills Police Chief Jimmy Perdue said, “The cameras could generate $1 million to $1.5 million a year for the city, depending on how fully they are implemented. The money will be placed in a new traffic safety fund.” What is a traffic safety fund? Yeah right. Once a city gets a taste of four million dollars per intersection, do you think it is not going to put up more cameras? Who are the assholes allowing this to happen? Here in North Richland Hills it’s the city council. Seven assholes that have the teeniest bit of power and it has somehow gone to their heads. But to follow procedure, these assholes passed an ordinance to make it all nice and legal. Remember this fact as you continue reading.

Do you happen to live in Washington? This next paragraph is just for you.
According to city officials and a December 2002 General Accounting Office (search) report requested by members of Congress, Washington, D.C., issued 377,743 citations for red light violations caught by cameras since August 1999, netting the city $21.9 million in fines. A citation is generated when the camera captures an image of a driver’s license plate as it moves into the intersection after running a red light. The vendor then matches the license plate with records at the Department of Motor Vehicles. After police review, the vendor mails out the ticket. Radar cameras catching speeders earned the city $30.3 million in fines from 587,434 citations during that same period. Mayor Anthony Williams (search) caused a stir in 2002 when he said that the cameras were not only increasing safety, but generating revenues for the city. Kevin Morrison, spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department, said Anderson was “out of touch” with the rest of the AAA on this issue. He said MPD has improved the program to accommodate motorists’ concerns. Police officers review each citation and Affiliated Computer Services (search), which runs the program for the city, gets a flat fee of $190,000 per month for 39 camera locations. Previously, ACS got $32 for every $75 red light ticket and $29 for every speeding ticket they generated, leading drivers to complain the partnership had created a boondoggle.

Are the cameras illegal? No they are not. There is no law that forbids you from standing on a pubic street and photographing a car that passes you. In fact I invite you to take a photo of a car that is speeding, or runs a red light or passes a school bus unloading children. You take this photo to your local police department and tell them to issue a ticket to the offender. What you will be told is there is nothing they can do except maybe send a letter telling the person to not do it again. Why can’t a ticket be issued? The fact is simple to understand; you are not a police officer with law enforcement authority. Does the term vigilante justice ring a bell? That’s right; civilians can’t take the law into their own hands and neither can groups and hence neither can companies. So what has occurred is that the city council passes a red light photo ordinance and allows a civilian company to send you a picture and a letter and that is where the entire event stops. Redflex Traffic Systems is not a law enforcement agency, they are not empowered by the state to enforce laws, they can do nothing.

Now let’s go deeper into this topic. You got mailed a picture of your license plate. The letter says that you owe $75 dollars to XYZ Photo Enforcement Program. This letter was never “Served” to you legally. A police officer never physically witnessed you doing something wrong. You have not been summoned to court and to top it off; you are being told to mail your payment to some oddball address and not the official courthouse. Here in North Richland Hills, "the letter" says to send your payment to a "particular address" and that this will not affect your insurance or your driving record. Of course it won’t, it simply can not. The letter also says that if you were not driving your car when photographed then you must indicate who was driving it. There is no such legal traffic citation in existence where you get to pass the blame to someone else. What has been allowed to occur in several cities all through the U.S. is a company has cut a deal with each city and is being allowed to trick people into paying a supposed fine. Would you believe that 99.99% of people actually pay these things? What happens if you don’t pay? Well here in Texas if you decide not to give 75 dollars to some strange company then you will get a nasty letter from “the company” and they will tell you that you have been penalized with an additional amount. Here in Texas after three nasty letters covering six months, nothing happens. So there you have it. This is what I have learned first hand. I only decided to write it all down after I heard a police officer do an interview on WBAP 820. Do your own homework and make your own decisions and don’t let those asshole city officials ever get away with anything.