City Tax Camera Tickets 7 MPH SUV for going 45 MPH

[demopublican]

It will be funny if the cameras now become a drain on the budget.

[Wizard777]

The fact that the cameras are right "way more often" than not is of little consequence to me. If they don't time-stamp the photographs with sub 16-millisecond precision, and they don't provide two time-stamped images clearly showing the vehicle at Point A in shot one, and Point B in shot two, then there's literally NO WAY to verify that the speed reading is accurate.

Using actual time-stamped imagery taken at a 60 Hz frame-rate would give you a much more reliable result, and more concrete evidence, than the radar sensors will. Heck, I once had a radar gun tell me I was throwing 99 mph. If only that were true...

The only potential point of failure would be the internal clock of the system, which if it syncs with GPS time as a source, would remove virtually any and all chance for error. The math is quite simple... if you travel 45 feet in half a second, you're going about 61 mph. 22.5 feet in a quarter of a second, you're going about 61 mph. It's quite easy to "calibrate" the images to the ground distances they cover, and even overlay that information on the picture. That way a human auditor could verify the reading in a few seconds, without even having to do much hard math...

Point is, there's absolutely NO REASON for the system they have in place to be as flawed as it is...

This is why I say it's malicious prosecution. Without that information the officer examining the photo's can't tell if the car is doing 80 or standing still. So there can be no probable cause for him to believe a violation has been committed and issue the citation. If the officer has access to other information not included on the photo's to verify the validity. Then the accused is not getting this information to also verify it's validity. That's a discovery violation that would make all the photo's inadmissable as evidence. So they would have to refund every ticket issued.

Another probable cause problem is that the officer issuing the citation is not acting on probable cause that he has devoleped. Xerox, in their corporate persona, is a private citizen that is investigating and gathering evidence of speeding that they present to the police for prosecution. So in issuing the citation the officer is acting upon an investigation and evidence gathered by a private citizens who is essentially a paid informant. If a person called Xerox Inc. can do this. Then why can't John Q Public also buy his own radar gun and do his own for profit speeding investigations?

If a lawyer were to pursue a class action suit. Because the programs are being operated in violation of State Law and compensatory damages are intentionally inadequate to the point of being cost prohibitive. HELLO punitive damages.

[Ravens2006]

It will be funny if the cameras now become a drain on the budget.

They probably will. If they actually do the full audit that they legally SHOULD... the same thing that govt. would mandate if a purely commercial program were this flawed... or if a private entity were consistently falsely charging government for a service and it became news.

I remember several years back getting notice from NJ EZ Pass (had that before MD's) that they were starting a $1 monthly fee because of the substantial "unexpected" administrative costs that came from human auditing of violations and processing contested violations. In other words, because of the flaws and cumbersome nature of the system... they (government) were passing along the added cost to the consumers.

They haven't fixed the system(s) yet... they just keep taxing the public for their own flaws.

[Wizard777]

They probably will. If they actually do the full audit that they legally SHOULD... the same thing that govt. would mandate if a purely commercial program were this flawed... or if a private entity were consistently falsely charging government for a service and it became news.

I remember several years back getting notice from NJ EZ Pass (had that before MD's) that they were starting a $1 monthly fee because of the substantial "unexpected" administrative costs that came from human auditing of violations and processing contested violations. In other words, because of the flaws and cumbersome nature of the system... they (government) were passing along the added cost to the consumers.

They haven't fixed the system(s) yet... they just keep taxing the public for their own flaws.

As anyone can clearly see it's not about public safety. It's all about the money.

[Wizard777]

City speed camera 'nightmare' among the year's lows, AAA says

AAA Mid-Atlantic says Baltimore's speed camera "nightmare" was one of the transportation lows of 2012, though the driver advocacy group credited a similar program run by the State Highway Administration with helping to improve safety in construction zones.

"The troubles with Baltimore's speed camera system have raised the eyebrows of motorists, legislators and traffic safety advocates and have truly called the integrity of the City's entire program into question," AAA spokeswoman Ragina Averella said in a news release Thursday.

The city has stopped issuing tickets at 10 of its 83 cameras, because of either erroneous radar readings or questions about the appropriateness of their locations.

[Wizard777]

Assembly to scrutinize speed camera law

Key lawmakers say that Maryland's speed camera law will get a hard look during the coming General Assembly session and that changes are likely.

In the wake of problems exposed in Baltimore's program, a House committee chair also said that city leaders and their initial speed camera contractor, Xerox State and Local Solutions, will be called to give an accounting.

City officials "obviously need to be front and center in this," said Del. Maggie McIntosh, a Baltimore Democrat who chairs the House Environmental Matters Committee, which would consider any speed camera legislation. "They're going to have to be there explaining. The vendor is going to have to be there explaining," she said. The city is switching contractors in January, but Xerox still runs the cameras in other Maryland counties.

[Wizard777]

Speed camera analysis thwarted by driver privacy law

Here's a recipe for systematically fact-checking the accuracy of speed camera tickets, at least in Baltimore City where the time stamps on citation photos go to the thousandth of a second:

Take a random sample of tickets. Use the two time-stamped photos on each one to physically measure the distance traveled so as to calculate the vehicle's actual speed. Then compare that to the alleged speed listed on the ticket. Repeat.

The Sun has employed this method to document erroneous readings at seven city speed cameras. But we've relied on people to send us their own tickets, and Maryland law largely bars the government itself from releasing the photos it uses to claim that a motorist broke the law. Without that key ingredient — the random sample of tickets — there's no way to do a large-scale, independent analysis.

Redaction immediately comes to mind. They can be provided with only the information needed to verify the accurate functioning of the camera's and a citation number. That way any citations identified as being issued in error can be refunded. There should be a refund requirement for any citation that has been paid and later found to be issued in error in any review of citations. I think that would be a proper ethical balance considering that the penalty has been reduced to also reduce resistence to fighting the citations. If there is no violation of law then there is no behavior modification through law enforcement. The guiding principle would then become petty theft. The jurisdiction is stealing an amount through false accusation that it's not really cost effective to fight or seek remedy for. But it's none the less a petty theft. Especially when they would at that point know that they have made a demand for and taken money that they were not rightfully entitled to. That would be an open and shut case of theft in any Maryland Court.