These up-eds usually complain that photo radar would be fine if the radar worked properly. This one doesn’t even do that. It just complains that speed limits aren’t fair and now drivers have to change their behavior. jfc
It is true that drivers can avoid such tickets by sticking to the posted speed limits, but it is also true that drivers are hardly ever expected to strictly observe those limits.
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It’s like the generally accepted contract between drivers and police – just drive at a reasonable speed and you’ll be fine – has been broken.
Revenue generation is an inherent problem though. In the US we are seeing a rapidly growing issue where police are pressed to to increase the amount of money taken in by fines at any cost. We are now seeing that the majority of local governments are more than 1/4 funded by citations, and that the cases of abuses of power, and other civil rights violations, are on the rise, specifically in the name of increasing citations.
How is a speed camera going to abuse its power and hand out wrongful convictions?
Because humans decide how they are used, and all of the circumstances surrounding the camera’s operation, and how they fall within the law. A wide range of things have happened that ended up in millions of citations rescinded, thousands of cameras removed, and thousands of signs changed/removed. When this happens it is ignored until it basically gets picked up by the news, and turned into a PR nightmare for them. Even then, it often takes years for correction. Even if there is a correction/payout/whatever, they rarely admit fault, and the news, always afraid of a lawsuit, never comes out and says “you know, this keeps happening, maybe this isn’t just mistakes”.