Baltimore Red-Light Camera Tickets Verified by Dead Police Officer

[Classy@Home]

http://www.thecarconnection.com/mar...amera-tickets-verified-by-dead-police-officer

As readers of the Risk Factor know, blaming the computer for any and all technical glitches is a fairly regular and convenient excuse. One of the more unusual technical problems blamed on a computer was about a week plus ago by the WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team in Maryland. Apparently, some 2,000 Baltimore red light traffic citations which require a police officer to swear that he or she has reviewed the photos as indeed showing a traffic violation had a slight problem. It seems that all the verification signatures on the citations issued were from a police officer who had died in a car accident last year.
WBAL-TV said the error was discovered when a retired police officer acquaintance of a driver who had received a $75 red light camera ticket on 12 January 2011 noticed the signature on the citation was from the police officer who he knew was deceased.
A Baltimore police spokesperson, WBAL-TV said:
"... blamed the problem on a computer glitch, which is the fault of the company that operates the camera system, and he said the problem has been rectified."


Exactly how the deceased officer's name ended up on the tickets wasn't fully explained, but Baltimore police insist that internal police documents show that a live officer reviewed and approved the citations. Legal experts say Baltimore may have difficulty enforcing the tickets if they are challenged in court, however.
What Baltimore could (or should) do is follow the lead of Edmonton Canada's Chief Crown Prosecutor Steven Bilodeau who decided late last month that all persons who had received camera tickets at city intersections since November 2009 are eligible for refunds. Some 140,000 tickets worth about C$13 million are involved.
According to this published in the Edmonton Sun, a speed on green ticket coincidentally issued on 12 January 2011 indicated that that a car had gone through a city intersection at 143 km/h, which, the Crown prosecutor said, was "obviously wrong."
This erroneous speeding ticket kicked off an investigation that resulted in the decision to dismiss all the speed on green tickets as a "matter of fairness," Crown Prosecutor Bilodeau said.
The Sun story says that the offending cameras would be pulled for at least a month, and that the cameras' problem could involve either hardware or software issues.
I can't find any update to this story, such as the confirmed cause of the glitch or when the cameras will be returned to operation. Anyone know?
I also haven't seen anything that indicates that Baltimore plans to drop all 2,000 tickets "as a matter of fairness," either. With a $150,000 at stake, I doubt the city will.

Does this shit ever end???

Dead leo verifying tickets - "computer error"?

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

business as usual... carry on folks nothing to see here....

 

[Deft]

How can it be computer error when there is supposed to be a human watching over this and signing off?????

I think I smell a lie. I bet the computer reviews them or some non cop... I have been gotten by speed cameras but not a red light one, always very good with them.

Here's how you fuck up one of these cameras with impunity.... Get a 1watt solid state laser and cook the shit out of it from a hilltop a mile away.... After lighting your J with the beam of course

Lather rinse repeat till it is more expensive to put up cameras than to have a cop there ticketing.

 

[Strainhunter]

Avoiding a red light camera ticket is easy - don't run a red light.


(not saying it hasn't happened to me in the past lol, now all we have here are bicycles and golf carts and there isn't even a street lol)

 

[pearlemae]

Classy good read,couldn't help but notice that it was a private company that runs the cameras (privatization). The dead officers name used to sign tickets? If the cities/counties insist that privatizing is a good thing then, then they should have to show real cost savings. People have to tell the local state and fed governments STOP we're tired of getting screwed so you can say your saving money when its probably contracted out for more than the city/county/state could justify if pressured.

 

[Strainhunter]

.....

The dead officers name used to sign tickets?

.....

You guys got that all wrong!

Having a dead officer signing the tickets is part of the money saving project...having fines coming in w/o having to pay an officers salary!