Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/26/2633.asp

12/21/2008

Arizona: Law Enforcement Joins Anti-Camera Crusade
Sheriff and a deputy in Pinal County join the fight to ban photo radar in Arizona.

Law enforcement officials have joined the effort to end photo radar in the state of Arizona. Last Sunday, Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Bill Conley announced the establishment of the Tuscon branch of CameraFraud.com. The group will work closely with CameraFraud's Scottsdale and Phoenix-based founders to gather public support for a referendum that will give the public the right to decide the fate of photo ticketing.

"Just follow the money and we can see why there's such a huge interest on the part of municipalities to deploy these systems," Conley wrote. "Municipalities are depending more and more on the revenues for these types of technologies. Why? Because it's easy. For the most part, people are tired of taxes and government knows this."

Although Conley will be leading CameraFraud in his capacity as a private citizen, his new boss will be supportive of his efforts. In November, a majority of residents chose to replace the incumbent sheriff with Paul Babeu, a challenger who had campaigned on a platform opposed to photo enforcement.

"As Sheriff, I will eliminate Photo Radar vans in Pinal County and replace them with a traffic unit of highly trained deputies," Babeu wrote during the election. "Photo radar tries to replace deputies and police officers. You can not replace a police officer or deputy with machines or cameras... I live locally in Johnson Ranch, where we are already paying the highest property tax rates in Arizona. Don't be fooled, photo radar is yet another tax and trick to get more money from hard working citizens."

CameraFraud Tuscon will represent the southern part of the state, including Ajo, Benson, Bisbee, Douglas, Eloy, Green Valley, Marana, Nogales and Tucson.