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Tickets by camera

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Theodore Bundy

Guest
What is the name of your state? CA or any other state with cameras

I was wondering if anyone here has been ticketed by one of these radar cameras that take a picture of your license plate and mail the ticket to you. Has anyone gone to court and simply pleaded not guilty to this? How does the city/state/county prosecute these cases? Does a prosecuting atty simply tell the judge that "Yep, we got a picture of his license plate. That proves he wa speeding". Don't you have the right to question your accuser at trial? If so, how can you question a camera?

I don't see how any court could actually convict anyone like this. Does anyone have any experience with this type of case?
 


racer72

Senior Member
Courts throught the 9th Circuit Federal Court have all ruled that camera tickets were valid and legal. If a ticket is challenged, there will be a representative for the prosecution at the hearing acting as the "accuser". You can question this person all you want. The only instance of camera tickets being dismissed had to do with how the payment for the tickets was distributed and the operation of the cameras, not the legality of the citation. You can read more about it here:
http://lists.insecure.org/lists/politech/2001/Sep/0009.html

More questioned are answered here by the Institute for Traffic Safety.

http://www.iihs.org/safety_facts/qanda/rlc.htm#8
 

lwpat

Senior Member
Thanks for the links racer. I've been looking for some information on camera tickets. They are starting to use them near me in Charlotte, NC.
:)
 

lwpat

Senior Member
Red Light Ticket Fraud

Have you heard the news about Los Angeles County? Seems the company they hired to run the cameras was getting a piece of the action on every ticket. How do you increase revenue? Set the timing of the yellow light and camera to make it seem like more people are running the light!

Now the county is having to return everybody's money and may be liable for damages. Bring on the lawyers!
 
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Theodore Bundy

Guest
I wonder what would happen if one of these cases ever made it in front of the high court. There's no way it could stand up. Radar is unreliable enough even with someone operating it. There's no way that a machine can determine which car was clocked if there are multiple vehicles in the area. The red light cameras only photograph the license plate, not the driver. There's no way that the court could prove who was behind the wheel. I loan my car to people all the time, I guess with these camera tickets the vehicle's owner is liable for all traffic infractions.
 

spawn_x

Member
You'd have to prove that someone else was driving the car/truck i assume...

don't have any experience with that (thank god) but would be interesting to see how the procedure would work.
 

kat1963

Senior Member
My son just got one in MD. There is a close up the license plate and another photo, closeup of the driver. They are both extremely clear.
Hey, wear a mask!
KAT
 

JETX

Senior Member
kat1963 said:
My son just got one in MD. There is a close up the license plate and another photo, closeup of the driver. They are both extremely clear.
Hey, wear a mask!
KAT
Yep, as a result of a few of these tickets being tossed (since the photo didn't ID the driver and only the vehicle.... which can't be guilty or innocent), the product has been revised to now take a picture of the license AND the driver.

There ARE some interesting 'spins' on this at:
http://www.azbar.org/ArizonaAttorney/June98/6-98a1.asp
http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/publicworks/depts/trans/ntmp/radar/general.htm
http://www.motorists.org/issues/enforce/nma_photo_radar_position.html
http://www.msnbc.com/local/vcolptld/M248193.asp?cp1=1
 
T

Theodore Bundy

Guest
racer72 said:
Courts throught the 9th Circuit Federal Court have all ruled that camera tickets were valid and legal. If a ticket is challenged, there will be a representative for the prosecution at the hearing acting as the "accuser". You can question this person all you want. The only instance of camera tickets being dismissed had to do with how the payment for the tickets was distributed and the operation of the cameras, not the legality of the citation. You can read more about it here:
http://lists.insecure.org/lists/politech/2001/Sep/0009.html

More questioned are answered here by the Institute for Traffic Safety.

http://www.iihs.org/safety_facts/qanda/rlc.htm#8
After reading some more about this it looks like camera tickets are frequently shot down in court. Apparently they were recently shot down in Colorado and Alaska. It looks like CA is the only state where they are routine.
I also read a bit where the manufacturer of the camera sends a rep to court to testify. The radar camera company also gets a percent of the fine. No motive for corruption there, eh?:rolleyes:
 

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