Thou shall not

glhs837

Power with Control
mess with the revenue stream!!!!!!

Maryland Drivers Alliance: Senate Neuters Speed Camera Reform Bill Provision


Cliff notes.

1. Automated speed enforcement in MD is rife with examples of corruption.

2. Baltimore and many other municipalities, including the Maryland SHA, have been caught not just being ignorant, but willfully ignoring state law as regards deployment of such systems.

3. It has gotten so high profile that even some politicians have proposed new laws to restrain the misuse/abuse of such systems.

4. But of course, the ones who care more about money that your rights, they have amended the proposed legislation to gut it's protections.

Specifically, the proposal would have required (in accordance with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration guidelines) a secondary proof, not just of the vehicle being present and moving, but of the actual speed of the vehicle. Would this be an onerous burden, requiring additional technology? Actually, no, since the most commonly deployed system in MD does this as part of it's normal operation, taking two pictures with three decimal place timestamps. In fact, that's how Baltimore's system, and others, were caught issuing bad citations.

But money talks, and following the lead of Optotraffic (system maker) and Brekford (system deployer, vendor) who, once they saw citizens defending themselves with this data, pulled the timestamps back to a full second.

Anyone want to tell me again that "it's only a problem if you break the law"? when we see right in front of us efforts to ensure that even if you dont break the law, there is no way to defend yourself? Safeguards? Ha. Oversight? Yeah, right. St Marys, right now, it's red light cameras, but just watch, the second those get in, the speed cams wont be far behind. Will people demand a system that ensures citizens have a fair chance to fight unfair citations? And that state law is followed in the contracting of such systems?
 
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