Show Low Residents Speak Out Against Redflex

During the last City Council election, Globe voters elected councilmembers and a mayor who promised to get rid of the Redflex traffic cameras. The same thing may be happening now in Show Low.

The White Mountain Independent reports that  the Show Low City Council “got an earful” this week from people who wanted them to get rid of the cameras in that area.

A few people spoke in favor of the cameras at the City Council meeting, but most people were against them.

Show Low Councilmember Gene Kelley brought up the Redflex scandal in Chicago. In January the Chicago Tribune reported that Redflex Executive Aaron Rosenberg allegedly provided Chicago government officials with gifts and bribes. Redflex lost its $100 million contract with the city of Chicago.

Redflex fired Rosenberg and is suing him in an Arizona court, blaming him for the company’s wrongdoing.

Rosenberg says in a counterclaim that Redflex provided gifts and bribes to government officials in 13 states--including Arizona—in order to get new contracts. Redlex denies the allegations.

A public survey in Show Low shows a 50/50 split between those who say the cameras caused them to change their driving habits for the better and those who say the cameras  had no effect. A slim majority of about 54% said to keep photo enforcement as it is or  modify some aspects of it.

Those speaking against the cameras at the Show Low City Council meeting said the cameras  made visitors feel “unwelcome.” Some visitors wrote scathing letters to the editor saying they would never return to Show Low because of the cameras.

The same thing happened in Globe while the cameras were active. Several people wrote comments in the KIKO blog saying they would never return to Globe.

Globe Public Hearing to Discuss Redflex Cameras

The City of Globe has scheduled a Public Hearing to discuss the Redflex photo enforcement cameras in Globe. 

The Public Hearing will be held on Monday, July 16 at 6:pm at Globe City Hall.

Globe Police Chief Says Photo Enforcement is Working

Globe Police Chief Lee Kinnard says accident reports continue to show that Gllobe’s photo enforcement program reduces accidents as well as red light and speed violations.

In a press release, Kinnard compares data from May through November for the years 2005 through 2011. He says the information from Redflex shows that there has been a continued reduction in speed violations at fixed locations.

There was a slight increase in red light violations in the months of October and November, but the numbers are still lower than May through August of this year.

Chief Kinnard also says that a review of the video of an injury accident on December 1 helped determine the violator when there were no witnesses.

The press release includes data indicating that the photo enforcement program is not costing the City money and is in the black

Voters in Seven Cities Reject Photo Enforcement

Voters in eight cities and three states cast ballots on Tuesday to decide if red light cameras and speed cameras should be used in their communities. Seven of the eight races went against the use of photo ticketing.

TheNewspaper.com reports that Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia contributed at least $108,000 to the campaign for the cameras in Garfield Heights and South Euclid, Ohio. But the unfunded effort to put a stop to the cameras won 55% of the vote.

Local officials in East Cleveland, however, succeeded by using strong-arm tactics to badger voters into supporting cameras. Off duty police officers, in uniform and with their police cruisers parked on the curb, were ordered to go door to door to convince residents to vote to return the cameras. The mayor mailed layoff notices to 36 police officers and 14 firefighters saying the city would have to fire them if it lost photo ticketing revenue. This worked and the city got 54% of the vote, the only victory for the cameras on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, traffic cameras were voted out of Los Angeles, Houston and Albuquerque.

Report Says Traffic Cameras Create Conflict Between Profits and Safety

A new report by the Arizona Public Interest Research Group says that the use of red light and speed traffic cameras produces a conflict between profits and safety.

The group says that payments to such companies such as Redflex and American Traffic Solutions are often based on a percentage of fines collected or the number of tickets written. This can create an incentive to write more tickets. Sometimes traffic camera contracts are written so that cities are prevented from retaining control over traffic policy decisions that might actually improve public safety. For example, PIRG says intersections can be made safer by longer yellow lights. But some contracts specifically forbid such actions.

Public News Service reports that companies spend a lot of money on lobbyists and political committees that work to defeat laws and ballot measures that would restrict or ban the cameras. PIRG says Redflex Camera Systems has bragged about their ability to to keep a ballot measure to ban the cameras off the Arizona ballot in 2010.

The jury is still out on the claim that traffic cameras make the roads safer. Some cities report a reduction in accidents while others report an increase. Still others report a decrease in accidents at first and then an increase.

Peoria, Avondale and Tempe have canceled their traffic camera contracts.

Globe has been using Redflex cameras since April. Last week the Miami Town Council voted unanimously to reject the use of Reflex cameras.

Read the complete report at arizonapirg.org.

Globe Records Show Accidents Decreased in Photo Enforcement Areas

The Globe Police Department has compared accident reports for May through September of this year with the same months for the years 2005 through 2010. The results show that there has been a reduction in accidents in the areas where fixed photo enforcement is in place. The number of violations for both speed and red lights has also decreased.

Total photo enforcement revenue for June through September of this year is almost $235,000 with expenses of about $87,000.

(This information does not say, however, how much of that revenue goes to the Redflex company.)

Miami Council Considers Redflex Traffic Cameras at Monday's Meeting

Miami Town Council meets Monday at 6:30pm. There will be a Public Hearing on the possible approval of Redflex traffic cameras in Miami.

The Council will go into Executive Session for performance evaluations of Town Manager Jerry Barnes and Town Clerk Richard Canizales.

Peoria Shuts Off Red Light Cameras

Peoria is the latest Arizona city to drop photo enforcement traffic cameras. Intersections such as 83rd Avenue and Thunderbird saw large increases in accidents.

The blog War on Driving reports that Peoria officials claim that overall there was a 29% increase in accidents during the three years of the program. But increases of 300 to 500% were recorded initially.

Redflex Traffic Systems lost their contract with Tempe a few months ago over a legal dispute. Redflex was not only suing Tempe for a larger percentage of ticket fines, they and city officials were also the target of a RICO lawsuit related to the red light cameras.

An initiative to put Redflex speed and red light cameras to a vote is currently circulating in Paradise Valley.

Photo enforcement has also been discontinued in Houston and Los Angeles.

Valley Resident Comments on Globe Photo Radar

On Friday the following comment was posted to the March 30 blog entry Photo Enforcement in Globe Starts April 1:

I live in the valley and travel to Show Low several times a month by way of Globe/Miami. I usually stop in Globe/Miami to have breakfast and/or lunch depending on the time of day. Also trips to Roosevelt lake and the National Monument. Recently I received a photo ticket for allegedly driving 14 miles over the speed limit which is simply not true. I have been driving for more than 50 years and have never had a speeding ticket!

From now on I will simply avoid these two towns and use the route by way of Prescott. I have many friends that also use this route but made it a point to let them ALL know that Globe/Miami has become nothing but a speed trap for outsiders/tourist because the locals know where the cameras are and they are not the ones that will be paying these outrageous fines! All my friends agree and they will no longer take this route and will spread the word. I would have agreed to a $70 or $80 dollars fine to just make it go away, but $210.00 is nothing but highway robbery to say the least. BTW, if they think that they can extort this money from me, they will have to serve me, that is, if they can fine me. A letter in the mail will not due and I have filed it with my junk mail. Miami has become a ghost town and Globe is soon to follow.

New Law for Photo Enforcement Notices

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.)

Judge Overturns Photo Radar Ticket

Gila County Judge Peter Cahill has overturned a photo radar ticket issued by Star Valley to Michele Power. In a decision on April 5, Judge Cahill agreed with the appeal case that the ticket was issued without anyone identifying the driver.

PhotoRadarLaw.com reports that appellate courts have been consistently ruling against the routine practice of photo radar tickets being issued to registered vehicle owners withut proof of who was actually driving.

Bill to Ban Photo Radar Fails, But Related Bills Pass

The bill to ban photo radar enforcement in Arizona failed to make it through the state Senate on Wednesday. But the Senate did approve a bill to let voters decide the issue next year.

The Senate also approved a separate bill that says photo radar citations must inform vehicle owners that they don’t have to identify someone else who may have been driving, even if that person is known. The bill also says that a citation recipient is not required to respond to a mailed notice. Action is only required if the motorist is formally served.

Lawmakers refused to ban photo enforcement outright in spite of a plea by Republican Frank Antenori, who says officials care more about cash than crashes. The Arizona Daily Star reports that Antenori accuses cities of trapping motorists with unusually short yellow signals.