As of today (Wednesday), photo enforcement violation notices in Arizona are required to say that you don’t have to respond and you don’t have to identify the driver in the picture.
Photo enforcement is relatively new in Globe and hasn’t stirred up much controversy, but it has been common for other cities to imply that ignoring a notice could mean trouble. However-- as reported often in the Phoenix New Times and other places-- the truth is that ignoring the initial notice only means the possibility of a ticket being served at your home. Having a server come out does mean an additional $25 fine. But if the server never comes, or if you don’t appear to be at home when the server comes, then the photo enforcement ticket becomes invalid. If you are served, however, you must then treat the citation as if it were issued by a police officer at a traffic stop.
Now Arizona law requires notices to say that the notice is not a court issued document; you are not required to identify the person in the photo or respond to the notice; and failure to respond to the notice may result in official service with an additional fine.
(New Times also points out that the new law also requires $13 of every ticket to go to a task force with a mission of "strict enforcement" of immigration and gang laws. If you oppose such "strict enforcement," this could be another reason to ignore a photo enforcement notice.)
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