NOVA-DC-MD - Traffic Law Enforcement Has Quadrupled

Heads up everyone, I'm sure you have noticed as well. Traffic law enforcement has quadrupled. I see a sherrif's car hiding in bushes, somewhere every two second. The combo of bad economy, end of the month and weather warming up is contributing to this factor. Anyways, please drive slow.

 

Not sure where you're getting your data from.
NOVA counties have a huge budget shortfall at the moment to deal with.
They will not have the budget to keep the current traffic police level up, let alone funding the 4x increase in police staffing you are claiming.

For example, here is a quote about Fairfax County's 2009 - 2010 budget woes, specifically about police and traffic safety:

"There will be a pay freeze for all county positions, and 524 regular positions will be eliminated.
The Police and Fire Departments may absorb the bulk of those.
About 190 public safety jobs are on the chopping block.
That includes half of the school resource officers, the entire traffic safety units, and the sexual predator enforcement and detection team."

Article is here:
- http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/022309_fairfax_county_budget_cuts

So, the trend will likely be in the other direction, if anything.

 

"There will be a pay freeze for all county positions, and 524 regular positions will be eliminated.
The Police and Fire Departments may absorb the bulk of those.
About 190 public safety jobs are on the chopping block.
That includes half of the school resource officers, the entire traffic safety units, and the sexual predator enforcement and detection team."



BS! Oldest story in government. I remember, back in the days of Proposition 13, the California local governments threatening the end of the world, cessation of all services, anything to protect their budgets.

No doubt sexual predator enforcement may be threatened/reduced, but I'm confident that Fairfax County's, and all other municipalities', moronic devotion to enforcement of traffic laws will continue.

 

Whether there are more police officers on the streets or not, the addition of so many cameras has and will cause a significant increase in speeding tickets. Montgomery County seems to be putting up new cameras every few days and, even if you know they are there, it is often difficult to slow down to 30 mph on wide open roads.

Rob in Potomac

 

Well, we are going a little off the original post, however, I need to respond to WCH comments.

I work for Fairfax County Fire Department and we have close to 60 REAL firefighter cuts to be made. These are REAL jobs and not just hide the ball under the coconut positions. The police have close to 75 real police officer positions on the block. In both departments the latest recruit classses had to sign a document stating that they were aware they could soon be rif'd. The fire department has cut all the fat and we are now down to positions.

This would be a first for the county, but these are real tough times for revenue.


Robert

 

Robert, thanks for taking the time to reply!

Your comments make me even more suspicious - not of police and fire departments, though they too have been known to protect their turf - but of county politicos. I am absolutely convinced that cuts to public safety are threatened and made primarily in an effort to justify tax increases and failures to make cuts in other areas. I lived in Fairfax County for a number of years, and well remember how they exploited the real property and expecially personal property taxes to line the government pockets.

I have great respect for police and firefighters, and blame their superiors and the politicos for mos tof the mischief ascribed to the people on the line.

 

Hmmm, maybe I'm seeing so many police officers simply because 99% of my commute is in Fairfax county, at Mason or by the court house. Doesn't hurt to slow down though, and I feel bad for job cuts

 

Or maybe you have learned to drive with sense and keep your eyes open....

 

you assume too much

 

FYI, They just put a camera up on Russett Road in Rockville

 

I drive that road every day. there are 2 now. 1 in front of school which I have no problem with then another 1/2 mile down...why?........CASH in the county pocket....

 

When we talk about not making cuts, does that include the salary increases that the elected officials will still be getting? Must be nice to be able to give yourself a raise whenever you want, even when it means cutting funds to public safety and schools.

 

Fairfax City has always been the worst place to speed. Cops everywhere, always have been.

There appears to me to be an increase in speed traps in Loudoun. And strange enough many during non-heavy traffic times. Even the soccor moms are now targets.

 

That's for sure, speed limit for life. Not worth the hassle and time and money. They should make signs like DUI but instead say "SPEEDING IN VA, YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT"

 

Weird.

I got stopped for the first time in a couple of years just last month in the TR at 2x posted speed limit (last time was in WVA during the FCA-MAR meet). I say tha without any pride and lots of remorse. I literally was not looking at the speedo. Dumb.

The officer in the unmarked car gave me a rather very nice verbal warning to the tune of "you are a bit old to be driving that fast." Amazing. I had no idea I was driving 2x speed limit, but have curbed my enthusiasm significantly since the incident. It was pretty STUPID OF ME, but the day was nice, the tires warmed, the car running great, yada yada yada.

So, NOT ALL all jurisdictions are in it to generate revenue. Of course, I would not test the theory in DC-region.

My county police officer was educating me instead of picking my pockets - very refreshing.

And for that, I am very thankful and am driving slower these days.

I hope the other jursidictions find a way to fix their money woes.

 

You're too old to have those cars Al... why don't you give them to me?

 

I'll keep them as long as I can push the clutch in - but I will keep you in mind son.

The officer looked at my license twice, asked my birtdate and address three times. Then he said he wanted to know who dyes my hair - he had a great sense of humor. I told him driving these cars keeps one young. Then he gave me the serious talk. I am probably old enough to be his dad (ok, I set you up for the joke). BTW, the speed radar pic of your car in Monkey County needs to be photoshopped - add some contrast and light

Funny and absolutely weird day for me.

I'll have to invite you and some guys over for cigar night here at the house next month ) Bring one, exchange one party?!

 

From today's WSJ...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123811365190053401.html

Cameras to Catch Speeders and Scofflaws Are Spreading -- And Sparking Road Rage

The village of Schaumburg, Ill., installed a camera at Woodfield Mall last November to film cars that were running red lights, then used the footage to issue citations. Results were astonishing. The town issued $1 million in fines in just three months.

But drivers caught by the unforgiving enforcement -- which mainly snared those who didn't come to a full stop before turning right on red -- exploded in anger. Many vowed to stop shopping at the mall unless the camera was turned off. The village stopped monitoring right turns at the intersection in January.

Once a rarity, traffic cameras are filming away across the country. And they're not just focusing their sights on red-light runners. The latest technology includes cameras that keep tabs on highways to catch speeders in the act and infrared license-plate readers that nab ticket and tax scofflaws.

Drivers -- many accusing law enforcement of using spy tactics to trap unsuspecting citizens -- are fighting back with everything from pick axes to camera-blocking Santa Clauses. They're moving beyond radar detectors and CB radios to wage their own tech war against detection, using sprays that promise to blur license numbers and Web sites that plot the cameras' locations and offer tips to beat them.

Cities and states say the devices can improve safety. They also have the added bonus of bringing in revenue in tight times. But critics point to research showing cameras can actually lead to more rear-end accidents because drivers often slam their brakes when they see signs warning them of cameras in the area. Others are angry that the cameras are operated by for-profit companies that typically make around $5,000 per camera each month.

"We're putting law enforcement in the hands of third parties," says Ryan Denke, a Peoria, Ariz., electrical engineer who has started a Web site, Photoradarscam.com, to protest the state's speed cameras. Mr. Denke says he hasn't received a ticket via the cameras.

Protests over the cameras aren't new, but they appear to be rising in tandem with the effort to install more. Suppliers estimate that there are now slightly over 3,000 red-light and speed cameras in operation in the U.S., up from about 2,500 a year ago. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that at the end of last year, 345 U.S. jurisdictions were using red-light cameras, up from 243 in 2007 and 155 in 2006.

One traffic-cam seller, Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions Inc., recently reported it had installed its 1,000th camera, with 500 more under contract in 140 cities and towns. Rival Redflex Holdings Ltd. says it had 1,494 cameras in operation in 21 states at the end of 2008, and expects to top 1,700 by the end of this year.

Municipalities are establishing ever-more-clever snares. Last month, in a push to collect overdue taxes, the City Council in New Britain, Conn., approved the purchase of a $17,000 infrared-camera called "Plate Hunter." Mounted on a police car, the device automatically reads the license plates of every passing car and alerts the officer if the owner has failed to pay traffic tickets or is delinquent on car taxes. Police can then pull the cars over and impound them.

New Britain was inspired by nearby New Haven, where four of the cameras brought in $2.8 million in just three months last year. New Haven has also put license-plate readers on tow trucks. They now roam the streets searching for cars owned by people who haven't paid their parking tickets or car-property taxes. Last year 91% of the city's vehicle taxes were collected, up from "the upper 70s" before it acquired the technology, says city tax collector C.J. Cuticello.

Not that it's been smooth sailing. Mr. Cuticello recalls the time he tried to help tow the car of a woman who owed $536. She knocked him over, jumped in the car and drove away. She was later arrested for a hit-and-run.

City leaders have generally maintained that while revenue is a welcome byproduct of traffic citations, the laws are in place to improve public safety or reduce accidents.

But a study in last month's Journal of Law and Economics concluded that, as many motorists have long suspected, "governments use traffic tickets as a means of generating revenue." The authors, Thomas Garrett of the St. Louis Fed and Gary Wagner of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, studied 14 years of traffic-ticket data from 96 counties in North Carolina. They found that when local-government revenue declines, police issue more tickets in the following year. Officials at the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police didn't respond to requests for comment.

George Dunham, a village trustee in Schaumburg, says installing the red-light camera at the mall "wasn't about the revenue -- no one will believe that, but it wasn't." On the other hand, he says, with fuel taxes and sales taxes falling, its retreat on the camera has had a "painful" impact on Schaumburg's $170 million budget.

Cameras to catch speeders on highways, which are common in Europe, are just starting to spread in the U.S. Last June, Arizona added a provision for speed cams on highways to its budget bill, with an anticipated $90 million in fines expected to help balance the budget.

State police started placing the cameras on highways around Phoenix in November. In December, a trooper arrested a man in Glendale while he was attacking a camera with a pick ax. In another incident, a troupe of men dressed as Santa Claus toured around the city of Tempe in December and placed gaily wrapped boxes over several traffic cameras, blocking their views. Their exploits have been viewed more than 222,000 times on YouTube.

Republican state representative Sam Crump has introduced a bill in the legislature to remove the cameras, which he says were approved "in the dead of night...as a budget gimmick."

In the meantime, the cameras are still being rolled out, and have already issued more than 200,000 violation notices since September. They are set to take a picture of cars going more than 11 miles over the speed limit, and they also photograph the driver.

Some entrepreneurs are trying to help camera opponents fight back. Phantom Plate Inc., a Harrisburg, Pa., company, sells Photoblocker spray at $29.99 a can and Photoshield, a plastic skin for a license plate. Both promise to reflect a traffic-camera flash, making the license plate unreadable. California passed a law banning use of the spray and the plate covers, which became effective at the beginning of this year.

A free iPhone application available on Trapster.com lets drivers use their cellphones to mark a traffic cam or speed trap on a Google map. The information on new locales is sent to Trapster's central computer, and then added to the map.

Other anti-cam Web sites counsel people to examine the pictures that come in the mail with citations. If the facial image is too blurry, they say, drivers can often argue successfully in court that no positive identification has been made of them.

Studies are mixed on whether traffic cameras improve safety. Some research indicates they may increase rear-end collisions as drivers slam on their brakes when they see posted camera notices. A 2005 Federal Highway Administration study of six cities' red-light cameras concluded there was a "modest" economic benefit because a reduction in side crashes due to less red-light running offset the higher costs of more rear-end crashes.

A study of crash causes released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last July found about 5% of crashes were due to traveling too fast and 2% were from running red lights. Driving off the side of the road, falling asleep at the wheel and crossing the center lines were the biggest causes identified.

 

Photo Blocker test results: http://www.kcci.com/news/10291218/detail.html

 

Illegal in MD....

 

and your point is? Laws were made to be broken or contested.

 

Moot point if Photo Blocker doesn't work.

If Photo Blocker doesn't work, how can it logically be illegal?

Maybe a lawyer (REDTRMAN where are you?) can explain the finer points of a legal argument?

If it doesn't fit, you must acquit <smile>