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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
West Virginia To Turn School Buses Into Ticket Machines

Faced with a $120 million budget deficit, West Virginia lawmakers are turning to school buses to bring in desperately needed revenue. The House of Delegates voted 98-0 Saturday to give final approval to House Bill 4223 which allows county school boards to deploy buses to issue $500 automated tickets. The proposal becomes law with the signature of Governor Joe Manchin (D).
   "Every county board of education is hereby authorized to mount a camera on any school bus for the purpose of enforcing this section or for any other lawful purpose," House Bill 4223 states.
   Private companies have been traveling to school boards around the country offering to install the cameras at no cost. The company would then issue tickets, collect on the fines and deposit a significant cut of the profits into the school board's bank account with no work required on the school's part. The Italian firm Elsag, for example, ran a test of the system in New York state last year. West Virginia's law, however, would require photographing the driver when issuing the citations. For the first ticket, a thirty-day license suspension is mandatory, with a judge having discretion to impose a six-month jail sentence. After a third ticket is mailed, jail time is mandatory. Arizona currently is the only state that jails vehicle owners based solely on the evidence provided by a ticket camera.
   Passage of the school bus legislation represents a significant win for photo enforcement lobbyists who snuck the measure through the legislature with very little public scrutiny. Copies of the Senate-amended version of the bill were not made available on the legislature's website.
   In 2006, state lawmakers had enacted one of the country's toughest bans on all forms of photo enforcement which was enacted before any vendor had attempted to sell cameras in the state. We asked the six primary sponsors of the photo ticketing ban why they would change their position and vote for the school bus cameras.
   "I did support the original legislation in 2006 for two primary reasons," Delegate Bob Beach (D-Monongalia) said in an email. "First, many law enforcement officers opposed the idea fearing job loses. Secondly, many felt technology needed improved to be effective and limit challenges in the court. Today, law enforcement in West Virginia see the technology as a benefit."
   Delegate Randy Swartzmiller (D-Hancock) said he would look into the issue. The other delegates did not respond by press time.
   A copy of the legislation, as passed by the House and Senate, is available in a 160k PDF file at the source link below.
Source:

House Bill 4223 (West Virginia Legislature, 3/16/2010)

Monday, March 15, 2010
Partnership for Advancing Road Safety Is New Photo Enforcement Industry Front Group

The photo enforcement industry announced on Friday the creation of a new red light camera and speed camera advocacy group. The Partnership for Advancing Road Safety (PARS) describes itself as an organization that seeks to use best practices to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities on American highways. The group's number one priority is countering the growing nationwide backlash against the use of automated ticketing machines that has resulted in multi-million dollar loses for camera vendors.
   "While a vocal minority may oppose road safety cameras, our research indicates just the opposite -- 80 percent of the public support intersection safety cameras and 67 percent support speed safety cameras," said PARS Executive Director David Kelly. "Automated road safety cameras share one thing in common with other proven safety countermeasures – they save lives. And that's the message PARS intends to communicate to everyone we can reach."
   Kelly provides a respectable face for the group as the former chief of staff for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a former senior staffer at Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The group itself, however, is the creation of the public relations firm APCO Worldwide. The website was registered by APCO. The PARS contact on the group's press release, Jeffery A. Smith, listed a "jsmith@advancingroadsafety.com" email address, but the phone number given rings the offices at APCO.
   The "founding members" that hired APCO for this public relations project include Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions, UK-based Lasercraft and Redspeed, Germany-based Traffipax and Australia-based Redflex. The overseas companies use front groups to evade laws prohibiting direct foreign influence in the US electoral process. Redflex, for example, specifically cited an "APCO nationwide poll" in a press release issued earlier this month, making no mention of its connection to the firm.
   "In a recent nationwide opinion poll, voters showed 80 percent support of the red light cameras as a safety tool," the Redflex news release stated.
   Despite the bold claim, neither red light cameras nor speed cameras have ever survived a public vote. In nine out of nine municipal referenda on the issue, automated ticketing lost with as much as 86 percent of the public voting against cameras.

Sunday, March 14, 2010
France, Poland, South Africa: Speed Cameras Under Attack

Painted speed camera, Dorothea Grabczewska

Last Monday, vigilantes lightly scorched the housing of a speed camera in Bons-Tassily, France. A tire at the base of the automated ticketing machine on the RN 158 was set on fire, but the device survived the incident according to Ouest France.
A pair of automated speed trap operators in Port Elizabeth, South Africa got a taste of highway robbery on Friday. As the mobile speed camera issued citations on Uitenhage Road, thieves came up from behind the municipal employees and held them at gunpoint. According to the Weekend Post newspaper, the thieves made off with cellphones, wallets, handcuffs and the keys to the speed camera car. One of the city workers was shot in the arm during the incident.
Vigilantes in the districts of Kutno and Leczyca, Poland continue to disable speed cameras by covering the lenses with paint. Local officials complain that the cameras are disabled faster than they can repair them. Most of the automated ticketing machines in the remote locations of the region are not operable for another reason. Because the devices do not have their own dedicated power supplies, police must bring battery packs that last no more than three hours at a time. The city of Lodz, for example, has 59 cameras -- 23 of which run on batteries. Of the 13 cameras in Kutno and Leczyca, only one, in Bedlnie, has a dedicated power supply, Polska Dziennik reported.

Saturday, March 13, 2010
California: Red Light Camera Refunds Reach $3.1 Million

Red light camera refunds will now reach $3.1 million in the city of South San Francisco, California. City officials decided this week that it had no choice but to refund tickets issued between January 28 and March 10 after being confronted by potential lawsuits over the city's failure to abide by state law.
   In January, the city admitted that every photo ticket that American Traffic Solutions (ATS) issued on its behalf between August 2009 and January 28, 2010 was invalid because the city council failed to ratify the contract. The council agreed to refund the tickets, nearly 3000 worth $446 each, and pay for the traffic schools motorists were forced to take. While generous, this move was not enough.
   ATS restarted the mailing of camera tickets on January 27, but California law requires a 30-day warning period before tickets may be issued. In the eyes of the law, the program started on the 27th -- without a warning period. The state supreme court upheld a court case that found tickets issued without this warning period were void. The editor of the website Highwayrobbery.net pointed out that the city may have been forced into this untenable legal position by vendor reluctance to hold a warning period without being paid to do so.
   "ATS shall provide the customer [South San Francisco] with an optional one-time warning period up to 30 days in length at the outset of the program," the contract between the city and ATS stated.
   During the warning period, the vendor is responsible for all of the expenses for creating and mailing warning notices to alleged violators. ATS had already paid for a warning period in 2009, when the program was operating illegally.
   City council members may vote next month to drop the red light camera program entirely.
   "With 60 day written notice, on the first anniversary of the start date, either party shall have the option to terminate this agreement," the city's photo enforcement contract explains.

Friday, March 12, 2010
Florida: Red Light Camera Lobbyist Fails To Register

On Tuesday, Melissa Wandall appeared at the Florida state capitol building to throw her support behind legislation that would legitimize the use of red light cameras in the state. Wandall heads the Stop Red Light Running Coalition of Florida, a group she formed in March 2006 with registered lobbyist Neil Spirtas to advance the cause of automated ticketing before the state legislature. Wandall's crusade may run afoul of state lobbying regulations.
Wandall became involved in the issue after a tragic red light running accident took the life of her husband Mark in 2003. The photo enforcement industry has specifically sought out victims like Wandall through a program known as the "Survivors Advocate Network" which is designed to replace difficult questions about the efficacy of automated enforcement with appeals to emotion. Wandall's pleas before the legislature helped last session to bring an industry-sponsored red light camera bill to the brink of passage. The measure, reintroduced in the current session, cleared several committee hurdles this week.
Wandall's Coalition website lists insurance companies and photo enforcement firms as "supporters" (

view list, 350k PDF). She has also confirmed receiving financial support from Manatee and Sarasota counties -- both of which stand to profit significantly from passage of this legislation. Despite receiving compensation for her lobbying activities, Wandall has not registered with the state as a lobbyist. County governments may not provide such payments to non-registered lobbyists.
   "No person shall provide compensation for lobbying to any individual or business entity that is not a lobbying firm," Florida Statutes section 11.045 states. "'Lobbying' means influencing or attempting to influence legislative action or nonaction through oral or written communication or an attempt to obtain the goodwill of a member or employee of the legislature."
   The Stop Red Light Running Coalition of Florida appears to match key criteria for a lobbying firm under state law.
   "'Lobbying firm' means any business entity, including an individual contract lobbyist, that receives or becomes entitled to receive any compensation for the purpose of lobbying, where any partner, owner, officer, or employee of the business entity is a lobbyist," Florida Statutes section 11.045 states.
   Neil Spirtas, vice president of the coalition, is a registered lobbyist. The primary purpose of the coalition is to influence lawmakers through direct testimony before legislative committees.
   Lobbying disclosure laws are designed to allow the public to know when business entities deploy their financial resources to effect a change in the law. A total of 1789 individuals have registered to lobby Florida's legislature. Those that fail to file a disclosure report face a fine of up to $5000. Any citizen may file a request to investigate a potential violation.

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