While many Arizona residents were thanking Pinal County sheriff Paul Babeu for taking the initiative and banning speed cameras, it seems that their confidence is sorely misplaced. Judging from this article I found, the sheriff is only banning the cameras because they don't increase the revenue of the city as much as he would like. And, yet he still supports red light cameras because of the "safety issue involved," yet it's been proven that red light cameras increase accidents.
It seems that Babeu doesn't really care much about safety...but maybe politics more, since he was just recently elected and wants to gain favor with the people, who hate the speed cameras and to gain favor he banned them. His statement that, "I've never seen a photo radar camera arrest a drunk driver" is ridiculous because has he ever seen a red light camera stop someone from running a red light? Has he ever seen a red light camera chase someone who hits someone and then takes off after running a red light? No. However, a cop could sit at an intersection and that would keep people from running red lights, and a cop could give chase after a hit and run. But, as usual, it's all about the money. It's cheaper to install these cameras and let the money flow in; it's not about the safety because these cameras have been shown to increase accidents and that's that.
For my readers' convenience, I've copied the two articles below:
January 23, 2009
Arizona County Scraps Speed Cameras
Arizona's Pinal County has put an end to its speed-camera program.
"I'm against photo speed enforcement completely," [Pinal County Sheriff Paul] Babeu said, walking the three-member panel through a detailed PowerPoint presentation. "Here in Pinal, it's failed miserably."
Why is Sheriff Babeu so opposed to photo speed enforcement, you ask? Is it because he doesn't agree with government restrictions on freedom of travel? Is it because the program has failed to prevent traffic accidents? Fatalities?
No. In fact, accidents and fatalities have actually increased. The program has simply failed to generate enough revenue for the county to make its continuance worthwhile.
Babeu said most of the total $134,199.43 in fines and fees from the paid citations covered administrative and operational costs, leaving the county with a net profit of $12,391.58 that Babeu dismissed as paltry.
Moreover, Babeu said, total motor-vehicle accidents increased by 16 percent in the same time period, and fatal collisions in the Queen Creek area doubled from three to six.
The sheriff said he couldn't be certain that speed cameras were to blame for the crashes, but he believes they were a factor.
I suppose Babeu deserves credit for at least tacitly revealing that these cameras were used mainly to create easy revenue for the county. They're intended to be just another form of taxation. And if you can get a public official to actually admit that he believes the cameras "were a factor" in motor vehicle accidents and deaths, you can bet they were the primary cause.
The government can't protect you. And don't expect any of the county supervisors or the sheriff to be held to account for a program that cost the lives of innocent civilians, either. The government does not care about your "safety"; it cares about keeping you in line and getting as much of your money as it can.
After all, what's Sheriff Babeu's new plan? Why, installing red-light cameras, of course!
Sheriff Paul Babeu Ends Pinal County's Contract with Redflex
By Stephen Lemons in Feathered Bastard
Friday, Jan. 2 2009 @ 5:05PM
CameraFraud.com's reporting that Pinal County's newly elected Sheriff Paul Babeu has ended Pinal's photo enforcement contract with Redflex, the Australian firm responsible for so many of those mechanical Orwellian shutterbugs plaguing motorists throughout the state.
Before CameraFraud.com posted the YouTube video above, I called the Pinal County Sheriff's Office to confirm the initial report and spoke to public information officer Vanessa White. According to White, the Redflex contract with Pinal involved just three vans, and no stationary cameras. The contract was set to expire December 31 at midnight. She said the decision not to renew the contract was the new sheriff's.
Shortly after being sworn in, Babeu told CameraFraud.com that he was against photo enforcement because he was a "strict Constitutionalist," and that its purpose was to "create money for the government." He expressed the opinion that, "It's corrupting law enforcement for us to be partnered with a private entity that creates revenue."
Geez, keep talking like that Sheriff, and people'll want you to run for Governor! Babeu did say he supported redlight cameras because there was a safety issue involved, but on the issue of the speed cameras, he was unbending. (emphasis mine)
"I've never seen a photo radar camera arrest a drunk driver," Babeu said to CameraFraud.com. "Or arrest a person with a warrant, see if someone has insurance, or to just simply give directions to somebody.
"So I'm against it, we have ended photo radar for speeding. Photo radar's last days are now behind us, because they ended on the 1st of January."
Babeu also expressed his hope that incoming Governor Jan Brewer would see the light on photo enforcement, and he praised citizens groups such as CameraFraud.com for pushing the issue.
Over at the Arizona Department of Public Safety, spokesman Lt. James Warriner said the new sheriff's action changes nothing for AZ DPS, which also contracts with Redflex, and that, "We will still be operating our cameras on state and federal highways as mandated by the Governor and State Legislators." However, he conceded that DPS has no stationary cameras in Pinal County, and that currently DPS only utilizes mobile technology there.
Redflex flack Shoba Vaitheeswaran could not be reached for comment. I would have loved hearing her spin on losing this contract, and what this might mean for her employer, as more politicians realize how hated these camera are and begin to stand up to the Redflex giant.
Kudos to Babeu for doing the right thing, and to CameraFraud.com for scoring this news first. CameraFraud.com's motto is "the cameras are coming down." And at least in Pinal County, they certainly are, thanks to a new sheriff in town.
These speed cameras are costing us both money and safety—I think that’s the definition of a failure. The unfortunate thing about presentations of “we’re doing it for your safety” is that the safety issue is readily ignored by politicians who just want money. So…in order to enforce a concept of safety, citizens are therefore forced to burn their own time and money to make cameras like this non-economically feasible. For every fine mailed to a citizen, if every single person showed up in court the lopsided costs would be staggering.
ReplyDeleteThey would generate no profit; instead it would be a terrible loss to the county.
There are red-light cameras near where I live. These things pop with the least provocation. It confuses me, somewhat, when there’s a flash and there is nobody in the intersection! Common triggers for the cameras also seem to be left-turning traffic; but that at least there was a car moving in a fashion that might confuse the camera. The programming on these things sucks.
Of course, Maricopa has a sheriff who certainly doesn’t care about the citizens as much as he does his political career. So I don’t expect him to do anything about them, ever.
I don't trust anything about these cameras - they are an ATM machine disguised as a public safety initiative. My brother bought this special GPS device called GPS Angel that knows where all the speed cameras and red light cameras are and beeps when he's near one.
ReplyDeleteHi Kyt and Mr./Mrs. Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. I am happy that the law passed to make speed cameras illegal though (at least on the interstate), but I think the red light cams are here to stay but we'll see. I've never heard of GPS Angel before I'll have to check it out! My wife got me a regular Garmin GPS for my birthday and it's awesome, and the company does offer updates to download speed and red light camera locations but when I looked into it they only offer it in Europe. I was bummed.
I just can't wait until they take these things down in accordance with the new law. Who knows how long it might take. I'm sure they want to keep them up as long as humanly possible so they can steal that last dime from all these innocent drivers.