Frederick City, Maryland city council members are facing a budget shortfall. They raised the fine from $75 to $100 to help fill the gap. What's interesting here is that one of the alderman involved is honest enough to calculate precisely how many tickets must be issued by each camera, even though he doubts they can issue enough to fully balance the books. So much for "safety."

That loss could easily be made up, Lenhart said, because the board raised red light camera fines from $75 to $100. The city budget reflects an income of $200,000 from red light camera fines based on a $75 fine. Red light cameras are expected to be installed in the next two months, but the mayor said the city would be hard pressed to earn $200,000 from the endeavor, because it would have to issue two violations for each of the 12 cameras each day.