Red light tickets and the law......

[mrvmax]

I was listening to Michael Garfield this past Friday talk about red light tickets. A caller claimed that you can get out of a red light ticket by asking the judge for the officer that issued the ticket. He CLAIMED that only a peace officer can issue a traffic ticket and the red light camera tickets are not issued by an officer. I have never gotten a red light ticket from the camera, just wondering if this was true. I may have left out some details, here is the podcast, it was hour two about 3/4 through the show.
http://www.950kprc.com/cc-common/podcas ... rfield.xml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TheArmedFarmer]

That sounds right. I read long ago that all the "red light camera" citations are indeed first reviewed by a DPS officer before the citation itself is mailed out. I would think that if the court couldn't produce the officer in question, the ticket should be nullified.

Of course, try that in a real life courtroom and I bet it wouldn't go the way you'd hope.

[jimlongley]

I was intimately involved in placing the red light cameras in Dallas, not that I wanted to, I was just an engineer building the wireless network to support them, and most of the tactics and strategies people think will work to get out of them have long since been considered.

In most jurisdictions the red light "tickets" are indeed civil citations, and "real" traffic citations can only be issued, at least in some places, by peace officers, but they are not rendered invalid by the supposed defect.

It has also been tried, unsuccessfully.

[Locksmith]

No longer valid

[Mike1951]

Of course you can spray this on the plate and the camera flash is reflected and hides the plate number :)

http://www.phantomplate.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Depends on how much faith you put in the Mythbusters.

They debunked this and other products as nothing sufficiently degraded the plate photo.

[74novaman]

I personally think red light cameras are disgusting.

Studies have shown that increasing the length of a yellow light decrease accidents, and addition of red light cameras increase them.

yet cities put them in for "the public good". Its total bull, and only about collecting money.

So much for keeping citizens best interests at heart.

[Liberty]

That sounds right. I read long ago that all the "red light camera" citations are indeed first reviewed by a DPS officer before the citation itself is mailed out. I would think that if the court couldn't produce the officer in question, the ticket should be nullified.

Of course, try that in a real life courtroom and I bet it wouldn't go the way you'd hope.

Most of the Red light citations are reviewed by someone but not by DPS. DPS has little to do with red light camera, and the operations. These citations are prepared and sent by private companies usually not even in Texas.

[Charles L. Cotton]

I personally think red light cameras are disgusting.

Studies have shown that increasing the length of a yellow light decrease accidents, and addition of red light cameras increase them.

yet cities put them in for "the public good". Its total bull, and only about collecting money.

So much for keeping citizens best interests at heart.

Yep, Texas A&M did a study that was presented to HPD when Houston was considering red light cameras. I can't recall the exact numbers, but they were impressive. Lengthening the yellow light by one second greatly reduced accidents and lengthening it by either 2 or 3 seconds made a huge difference. The study was ignored because of the revenue cameras generate. It's not about safety, it's about money.

I think every dime from traffic citations should go to the State of Texas specifically for use in education. I know, cities will scream they need the money to enforce traffic laws. Tough. Let's see how serious they are about safety v. money.

[/soapbox]

Chas.

[bdickens]

You're absolutely right. It isn't about safety, it's about revenue.

[Rocket_Cowboy]

The fact that certain municipalities are considering cutting back or eliminating their red light cameras because of cost would be a pretty good indicator that it's all about revenue. Seems red light cameras are effective when first installed, but their revenue generating capabilities decreases sharply the longer they're installed at that same location. Watch ... next will be the red light cameras on trailers like the mobile radar trailers so that they can enforce specific intersections at-will, using a static number of cameras.

[sss]

I got a red light camera ticket a little over a month ago here in Houston. Does anyone know a lawyer who's willing to fight these? I know it's not a moving violation and only a $75 ticket, but I'm willing to pony up $100-150 for someone to fight this for me.

[Lodge2004]

Something interesting I noticed when living in Germany during the early 90's - the lack of police presence anywhere and almost total reliance on cameras and phone calls to resolve issues.

There were red light cameras all over town but I don't recall ever seing a police officer doing traffic enforecement - they were not needed since the cameras were so prolific. There were phones every few kilometers along the highway and again, no police doing traffic enforcement. They generally relied on citizens to call them from one of the phones if a response was needed. There were also phones on virtually every block in town for citizens to call for assistance. It was wierd, in a George Orwell's 1984 sort of way.

[Bunkins]

I got one a few yrs back, it was the only red light camera in town at the time.. I was hauling calves to the sale barn. On a overpass, on the downhill side. Light went yellow, and about 1 second later went red. I wasn't about to slam on the brakes with a trailer full of calves in the trailer, so I rolled on through, I had no choice. Even if I would have hit the brakes I wouldnt have stopped in time. I did fight it, and I won. I just walked into court and pleaded my case. But now we have those things all over town, and I've yet to hear anyone get out of one. Funny that the yellow lights all over town now go out so fast. Much faster than in the past. I flat refuse to pull a trailer through town anymore, I'll drive all the way around town if I have to. Expect for the sale barn, I have to go straight through town.. If I'm hauling a car or something it's different, I can set the trailer brakes higher, and slam on the brakes if I have to ( although you have to worry about vehicles behind you ), but I will not do it with livestock in the trailer..

[stevie_d_64]

Wait till you get one in th email that is basically one big mistake after another...

The address is almost correct (I attribute that to the postal worker)...

The name is almost correct...

The picture is of a vehicle and licence plate of someone else...Yet when I did a publicdata.com check of the plate, it comes back with someone who actually lives just a few blocks away from where the offense took place...All of which took me a couple of minutes to get the check done...

To me that is some outstanding robotic police work... /sarcasm

I called the number on the notice and asked them what I should do with it...They told me to ignore it...

Go figure that one out...

But somehow it shows up in your mailbox...

[surprise_i'm_armed]

When a city signs a contract with one of these red light violation private
companies, the private firm sets a minimum number of tickets that they need
to handle each month in order to meet their profit needs.

One of the ways they do this is to shorten the yellow lights so that more
people "run the red" and get a ticket.

A bad side effect of the red light cameras is that motorists are so afraid
to run through a yellow that they stop very fast and then get rear-ended
by someone behind them that thought the front person was going to proceed
through on the yellow.

Some of the red light cameras will send you a ticket even if you had stopped
at the intersection, then took a legal right turn on red.

The City of Duncanville, Texas (South Dallas County) issues tens of thousands
of red light tickets a year and has recently made the news for its questionable
practices.