Bboy AJ

So who's the accuser of which you have the right to confront?

Chris S

Rights? Old-fashioned concept falling by the wayside w/ the advent of electronic cops. I'd love it if someone would make the rounds of red light cameras one night and shoot them out w/ pellet guns (assuming the e-ticket companies, and not the taxpayers, would foot the bill).

The Gasman

I hate these things. The Arizona ones are the WORST, the speeding ones.

dombey

dude, quit your bitchin'.

I used to live in AZ and let me tell you, I'd KILL for the speed limits you have down there.

I've been ticketed 4 times since I moved to MN, never once going more than 10 mph over...my personal favorite was where I-35 drops to 45 mph for not for safety reasons, but because the rich mofos on the hill lobbied to have the sound level reduced....I got a ticket doing 50 in a 45. Awesome.

ericg

Yes, and that picture needs to clearly show BOTH the license plate number and the face of the driver. Traffic convictions are given to people not cars.

Most red light cams (in CA anyway) are single camera from the front - so if you aren't running a front plate... Of course, the proliferation of camera enforcement is motivating more enforcement of the front plate requirement also.

Tickets often get sent out anyway without a clear picture of the driver - I would imagine most people just pay these. So if you ever get one of these tickets get a good look at the picture before you pay!

Also, they have a pretty short time limit for sending out the ticket, I think 15 days. There are lots of laws on the Cali books constraining photo-enforcement, so if you are willing to put some effort into it there's a good chance you can make it go away.

BTW - Running red lights is retarded and I don't mean to encourage it, but I really don't like the big-brother nature of photo enforcement, or the profiteering involved. (Much of the revenue from these tickets goes to the private companies that manage the cameras rather than to something sensible like improving our roads, or fighting real crime).

dombey

in the state of OR (maybe elsewhere), there is a box you can check on the ticket that says "the person in the ticket isn't me". You can decline to rat on whoever it was, too - so if it isn't 100% perfect and clear w/ no sunglasses on, you can just check the box and no one will ever call you on it.

Slamnasty

They probably explain that away through legalese that says you're driving on the community's roads by their rules. Also, technology is partly to blame, since it allows asynchronous policing to take place.

TraviS2000

I'm no lawyer...so what follows is probably completely false.

Okay, in court you have the right to face your accuser. I forget what this legal term is...so you ask for that. Since your accuser is a piece of equipment, what will happen is a cop or someone else will interpret the picture. As soon as he starts to testify about it, you object and call it hearsay. No accuser...no guilt.

Will it work? IDK...