Unfortunately, the only way to clean them up would be to “take them out”.
This article doesn’t bode well either:
http://www.wftv.com/news/26322821/detail.html
Hmmm… I sense a new revenue enhancement scheme brewing. Simply park a “plain” car along the highway, with a police cruiser behind it. Equip the cruiser with a deep-cycle marine battery to keep the blue lights flashing all day, install a camera in the rear window of the cruiser, and mail out $750 tickets to every car that passes by the scene. I guess I shouldn’t be giving governor “O’tax-me” any ideas, though!
Now that people are beginning to catch on to the “red-light camera, shorten the yellow” revenue enhancement scheme, government will have to get more sophisticated in how it raises money.
Although when you get right down to it, it is really we the people’s fault. Any politician who suggests balancing the budget by cutting services or raising taxes risks being voted out of office. So they get “creative” i.e. sneaky about taxes. Whether it be though ATM’s (Automatic Ticketing Machines) on the highway, or charging $500 for an ambulance ride to the hospital. Since most of us are busy living our lives, we really don’t pay attention to these laws they pass until we get the ticket in the mail, and by then it is too late.
If you get a ticket in the mail here in AZ you can chose to roll the dice and ignore it as our state constitution says it must be serverd in person. It just may happen that someone shows up at your home to serve it but no harm in testing the system. Plenty of people here in AZ protest the cameras by not showing up.
So Mom, and infant child with a flat tire in the break down lane is not given the same protection of the law !!!.
I can see the reason for the law. However, in a couple of cases in my state, the person who hit the police car was drunk. I have been in the breakdown lane with a blown out tire. One time, the tire was on the right rear, so I went ahead and changed the tire. Fortunately, a kind motorist pulled his car behind mine giving me some protection. The other time, the blown tire was on the front left. I have AAA. The truck that was sent had bright warning lights and was equipped with an air compressor to operate a pneumatic jack and impact wrench. The tow truck driver really worked fast to get me on my way. We have a “move over” law and most motorists did move over for the AAA wrecker.
It sounds like the money they save by having a camera do the police officer’s job gets spent on process servers. Might as well put the cops back on the job, they can fight crime in addition to writing tickets. If I lived in AZ they would have trouble serving me. I don’t answer my door because its always Jehovah’s Witnesses or home improvement salespeople anyway.
You’re “too busy living your lives” because the efforts of the police that allow you to do so. So many of this self indulgent criticizing of the police should be backed up by a little fact if you think they participate in some “revenue enhancement scheme”.
It sounds like someone should be given the opportunity to ride in a cruiser during a midnight shift. Be sure and take an extra pair of underwear. The police put themselves at risk many times over during this time to serve and protect your right to b…h and complain. This is one instance they are asking for your legitimate cooperation when stopping some one who if left to their own accord could snuff out the life of you or someone other innocent.
Why were the police parked in the middle of the road? When did construction workers come into it?
A friend’s son got a ticket for this recently.
Yeh. Let’s blame the police who were in the process of lawfully protecting “you”, and choose to believe third hand information. There is always more than meets the eye, and blaming the police so a young driver can keep using using the family car w/o knowing all the facts is the easy thing to do. You can find enough agreement every time some one wants to blame the govt. esp. the police for there own indiscretions.
“more than likely the cop was a speeder too” means you must have a lot of experience in this matter. If you have proof, that’s entrapment and the cops and his supervisor and the chief and anyone who signed off are liable. Every citizen is entitled to know the identification of all those police officers on the scene and the traffic report should reveal it. It’s easy enough to find out by OP…let’s not jump to conclusions just to to bash an agency trying to protect theme selves while protecting you.
And be thankful for those “slow days” enhanced by proper law enforcement. It means someone may not have died !
A friend’s son got a ticket for this recently.
Yeh. Let’s blame the police who were in the process of lawfully protecting “you”, and choose to believe third hand information. There is always more than meets the eye, and blaming the police so a young driver can keep using using the family car w/o knowing all the facts is the easy thing to do. You can find enough agreement every time some one wants to blame the govt. esp. the police for there own indiscretions.
“more than likely the cop was a speeder too” means you must have a lot of experience in this matter. If you have proof, that’s entrapment and the cops and his supervisor and the chief and anyone who signed off are liable. Every citizen is entitled to know the identification of all those police officers on the scene and the traffic report should reveal it. It’s easy enough to find out by OP…let’s not jump to conclusions just to to bash an agency trying to protect themselves while protecting you.
And be thankful for those “slow days” enhanced by proper law enforcement. It means someone may not have died !
Who said they were in the middle of the road? They’re in the breakdown lane. Police details for construction work are common here.
I am simply falling out of lock step agreement with the police version on every questionable incident. Being told all this is being done “so I can be safe at home in my bed at night” has been used up.
I suppose the “speeder” should expect to be put in jeopardy also as punishment for speeding. Np one’s asking that you don’t question the “police version” as you say. They only ask you don’t alwaya assume that being a cop is a profit making enterprise and promoting it without factual back up just encourages disrespect for the vast majority of work they do. Same for the fireman, soldier and medic I suppose.
In my experience in being in and working with local, state, and federal police agencies, I have NEVER heard of any “money making” schemes being inferred here in a totally unsubstantiated way.
I’d like to see the wording of the law.
Does it require the motorist to move over if “possible,” “practicable,” or “practical”? Many things (such as locking the brakes to slow to -20mph in time) might technically be “possible,” but not terribly safe (and thus neither “practical” nor “practicable.”)
I think a valid defense would be “Based on the distance the officer was ahead of me when I noticed him, I came to the conclusion that there was no safe way to alter my speed drastically or change lanes prior to passing him. Thus, I coasted, maintained my lane, and exercised due diligence.”
That conversation becomes much more reasonable and I couldn’t agree more in your observation. Having said that, the flip side might be that we are expected to come to a complete stop for a school bus, an even more difficult task when moving in the opposite direction towards us. What ever language applies, it should at least afford drivers the same opportunity to alter direction and speed IMO.
A lot of times that’s the way this law is enforced. But, then again there could have been another reason for the stop & he was the back up unit. There’s no way of knowing for sure.
It’s a good law but the fine seems excessive as well as the points. It’s not that sevre here. I would go to court, plead guilty & ask for a reduction. Many times the judge will grant one.
Whoa, calm down. My comments were not meant as an attack on the police. They were intended as a humorous exaggeration of what some state legislatures might do to raise revenue without ?raising taxes.? Population (as a whole) doesn?t want to hear the truth. We want the police to come when we are being robbed. We want Paramedics to come take us to the hospital when we are having chest pains. We want the fire department to come when our house catches fire. But we DON?T want to be told that it takes tax money to pay for all these things. So legislatures pass this kind of a law so they can come to us at election time and tell us they kept their promise to not raise taxes.
Of course the police are only doing their job of enforcing the laws on the books, and IF a legislature were to pass a law like that, the police would be required to enforce it.
In some parts of the country, police forces are being reduced (either through layoffs or attrition) and cameras are being used to enforce some traffic laws. I don?t live in AZ, but in the example oldschool posted, it sounds to me like they?ll end up having to hire process servers to serve the camera tickets. Personally, I would rather have more cops on duty. Get rid of the cameras and have the cops man the red light traps. Living people (cops) can do far more to maintain law and order than a passive instrument (camera) will ever do.
On a personal note, I am generally against this 21st century trend of putting cameras everywhere and anywhere. You can?t hardly pick your nose in public anymore without going home and finding yourself on ?YouTube?. I hate it!
btw, you find this kind of selfish shortsightedness in many other aspects of life as well. People don?t want to pay $100 for tires, so they advertise them for $67.97. Then you have to buy all those extras, like ?do you want them on the car? Do you want them balanced? How ?bout we fill ?em with nitrogen for a small additional fee?? You see cable tv packages for $29.99, then you have to get the converter box, dvr, and special remote control, each for an additional monthly fee, of course. Then they pile on FCC tax, universal service fee, and on and on…
P.S.- The $500 ambulance ride is a true story. My municipality says they are only going to bill your insurance company or medicare for this $500, but how do you think the insurance company is going to recoup the $500? By raising your premiums, of course! I regard it as a ?sneaky? tax. On a [tragic / funny] sidenote, after this law was passed, there were some well publicized cases where elderly people had called taxicabs to take them to the hospital because they couldn?t afford a $500 ambulance ride, and the municipality eventually took out full page ads in all the local papers announcing that ?..you will not receive a bill, we are only going to bill your insurance…?
At least in my state the law also applies to a car displaying it’s hazard flashers.
Actually the company that runs the cameras here (who are out of AZ) turns it over to a collection agency. It’s considered a civil penalty not criminal. No warrants issued. I got a red light camera ticket in the mail for a car I had sold already but the title hadn’t been transferred. When I called the company they said it was easiest if I just threw the ticket away,nothing would happen. I didn’t accept that answer.