Article from The Hill by Joe Barnett.
Speed and red-light cameras are the bane of many motorists. A modern idea made possible by technology, they have been installed in at least 24 states. Although these cameras are a revenue boon for governments across the nation, their intrusion into daily life is disturbing, and their constitutionality is dubious.
Specifically, use of these cameras could violate the Sixth Amendment. The Confrontation Clause grants criminal defendants the right to be confronted with the witnesses against them. Since it is a camera and not a person that witnessed the offense, such violations generally cannot be considered a criminal offense. The ticket is issued to the owner of the vehicle, not to the person driving it, leaving a lack of certainty as to the identity of the offender.
Therefore, the “ticket” in most places is nothing more than a civil fine, making enforcement and collection difficult. To date, governments have avoided this problem by requiring payment of the fine before motorists can renew their driver’s license or auto registration. Although there generally are appeals procedures, they typically do not give drivers a day in court. In other words, what happened to being innocent until proven guilty?
There are several for-profit companies that install and operate the cameras, some of them foreign-owned. In a typical arrangement, a camera company will contract with a local government to pay the capital cost of installing the cameras in exchange for a share of the revenue generated via fines. In short, governments get a new revenue stream without any operating cost, and the camera companies make a tidy profit.
Read the entire article at The Hill.
I do not promote government intrusion.
However, driving is not a right, it is a privilege, and when you get a driving license, you sign on the line that you agree that you will follow the driving laws, speed limits and rules of the state of the license, agreement which through other agreements, allows you to drive in all states. The number of deaths which would be avoided is a large number yearly. Thus in a violation of a traffic law, you are also a document liar. I think they should mail you your ticket!
You are an idiot.
I do not promote government intrusion.
However, driving is not a right, it is a privilege, and when you get a driving license, you sign on the line that you agree that you will follow the driving laws, speed limits and rules of the state of the license, agreement which through other agreements, allows you to drive in all states. The number of deaths which would be avoided is a large number yearly. Thus in a violation of a traffic law, you are also a document liar. I think they should mail you your ticket!
Replace the Cameras with Video Video recorders that would be good to monitor the traffic issues at the intersection and Video coverage of Accidents.