posted September 1, 2008
I constantly hear folks grumble about getting "caught" speeding or running a red light. Bottom line is if you run the red light or speed you deserve a citation and should pay your fine.
As a former police officer I have issued my share of traffic citations for various infractions and have received a couple too. In the days I was active in law enforcement we did not have the automated systems like we have today. We didn't have the Governor's Highway Safety Office that we have today that is committed to keeping our highways safe.
This past week I was able to witness the GHSO's Law Enforcement Challenge give law enforcement agencies throughout Tennessee several thousand dollars in grant money and equipment to enforce the traffic laws and work to improve safety on our highways. I am very happy to be employed by a company that is active in donating equipment to the Law Enforcement Challenge for use by these deserving agencies. Through this kind of support, our law enforcement agencies are being equipped with state of the art equipment for use in enforcing highway traffic laws and will be using this equipment on a regular basis.
The grand prize was a new patrol vehicle fully equipped with everything from emergency lighting to a video and radar system all of which was donated by various companies. The best part was seeing the faces of the winning agency's proud officers when they won the vehicle. This really showed the dedication these men and women have to protect us on the highways.
As motorists, it is our job to pay attention to our speed, stay off the cell phone, stay aware of our surroundings and do the speed limit. We need to stop at red lights and stop signs and generally drive safely and think about situations such as children that are waiting on the school bus and rain slick roads. It is time we stop complaining about getting caught and do what is right and pay attention to our own driving habits.
Go to www.youtube.com and type in "red light camera" and watch vehicles as they run red lights and smash into other vehicles. A couple of videos make me wonder if someone was killed. You parents out there think about how your life will change if you or one of your children get seriously hurt when someone broadsides you running a red light. How will you feel when that person complains about getting a ticket?
I applaud the city of Chattanooga and Red Bank for taking the initiative to upgrade their traffic enforcement with new technology.
John Thatcher
Trenton, Ga.
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As a former police officer Mr. Thatcher must know that there are often extenuating circumstances which call for judgment and (gasp) leniency on the part of the officer at the scene. Given the fact that we share the road with other imperfect drivers there really are times when exceeding the speed limit or continuing through a traffic light are the safest and wisest choices. The camera doesn't have a way to differentiate this so it automatically tickets both the just and the unjust.
Of course, Mr. Thatcher must also realize that the accused has the right to cross examine the accuser, but in these cases the citizen may neither question the camera nor the Norcross 1-hour photomat. Besides (and this is what the public/private revenue venture is depending upon), they who work have little time to waste waiting around in a city traffic court.
JB Griffin, III
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John, I know you mean well, but we have three branches of government, remember the Constitution. The document that bonds us together. Everybody is innocent until proven guilty. Legislators don't have the power to pass judgment on me, they have the authority to pass the law. Judges pass sentences.
As we can see in Tennessee and Chattanooga, executives can't spend enough money, so that means they can't collect enough revenue. The camera assumes all three branches of government. Have you read 1984?
Maybe somebody was having a heart attack, or having a baby, or snake bit when they ran the red light. Red light cameras give the car a ticket, not the person driving. Any soccer mom would take the rap to keep their child's insurance low. You are not thinking, remember discretion, the time you let me go after a few beers, those were the days we loved our local police officer.
If our state and local governments would stay out of corporate welfare (fascism), we would have plenty of money to buy police cars, fix the roads, pick up recyclables, buy textbooks and computers for our schools, etc. We could buy a lot of police cars with all the lights and whistles with $700 million, the amount our local government gave to a foreign company. Is that legal? Sounds like treason to me.
John, cameras are speed traps for revenue.
Chuck Davis
Lookout Mountain, Tn.
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I don’t have a problem with people running red lights and speeding getting tickets.
It’s when you are sitting still at the light, and your front tire touches the white line. You are sent a ticket for 'running the red light'! I’m sorry, but that is nit picking and stealing to me. Also, if you don’t wait the exact number of seconds, between you and the car in front of you, before making a right turn at a red light? Please, give us a break.
Or when a ticket comes in the mail on your car, and you were not driving it then, but it’s your tag number, and it’s your fault. When you go to court to try to explain, you are totally shut down, just pay the money.
I know law enforcement is not paid near enough for what they do for us. But looking for funds in illegal ways is not the answer.
Debi M. Brown
Signal Mountain
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Some years ago, Dalton Roberts wrote in a Chattanooga Times column that police speed traps are not actions to promote safety, but rather a naked shakedown. Now, we have police traffic cameras all over Chattanooga that are being used to fine drivers at $50 a pop.
Mr. Thatcher can tell us all he wants that this farce promotes safety, but in reality it is a shakedown, and a dangerous and abusive one at that. For example, my sister was clocked going one mile an hour above the speed limit, and received a $50 ticket. My mother was photographed on Dodds Avenue going 13 miles above the speed limit and received at $50 ticket.
Common sense tells us that a mile over the speed limit (which depends upon the camera being more accurate than most such devices) is not the same thing as 13 miles above it. Furthermore, no police officer would ticket someone for driving a mile above the speed limit, but the city of Chattanooga has found a new way to shake down drivers.
However, the tip-off to this being a "law enforcement" shakedown is the insistence by Chattanooga police officers that they are exempt from such fines when they are photographed breaking the speed limit, as long as they are off-duty. In other words, the police are insisting that they always are above the law and should not be subject to the fines that everyone else must pay.
As Chuck Davis has pointed out, these cameras are nothing but revenue devices, revenues that come from shaking down citizens in their automobiles. I must admit that I am hesitant from coming back to visit my hometown, as being caught unawares on camera can quickly clean out my bank account, but that is what Mayor Littlefield and his cronies want: more money from everyone else.
As for paying for police "services," I am sorry, but if the police have to shake down people in order to get their revenue, one wonders about their real value to the community. It seems that everyone else who works for the city of Chattanooga is paid through tax revenues. People who work in private business cannot shake down their customers. The schools cannot go and shake down motorists in search of more money, but the police can do it at will.
No doubt, others will take this as an unwarranted attack on the police, but I would ask most citizens if they really feel safe when they see police squad cars around. Don't forget that the police have a literal license to kill and injure innocent people, and do it on a regular basis. No one else in the community can tase someone without justification, but all a police officer has to do is to claim that he or she "felt threatened" by someone else.
I will add that there are times when the police actually do provide protection to citizens, but that does not justify shaking down people to pay for their services.
William L. Anderson
Frostburg, Md.
(Former resident of Chattanooga)
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Oh, Chuck, "cameras are speed traps for revenue" give me a break, of course they are but I haven’t received any because I obey the laws, not because I haven’t been caught yet.
People in Chattanooga and Red Bank need to just slow down, everyone is in a hurry now days. If you don’t believe me then take a few minutes and drive down 27 and do the speed limit and count how many speed by you at 90 MPH. I guarantee you there will be plenty of folks flying by you.
It also seems that no one cares that if we slowed down then we would be saving gas as well. So stop your crying and obey the speed limit and you should not have a problem
W. Wise
Chattanooga
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I recently received a photo violation notice in the mail from Knoxville. An accompanying picture showed a black cruiser type motorcycle crossing the white line .25 seconds after the light turned red. The "proof" also included a blurry picture of a license plate and the signature of an officer who "investigated" my violation.
The trouble is I haven't been to Knoxville since the 90's. My motorcycle with the license plate number from the citation was parked in my garage all day, and I was with family here in Chattanooga. The bike that was cited looked nothing like the motorcycle in the violation picture. Anyone who spent a moment's effort could easily have determined that the motorcycle they were about to cite looked nothing like the cruiser in the picture.
My choices are to either
1. Give Knoxville $50 and make this go away. There is no way I'm doing this. It’s extortion.
2. Name the person driving the motorcycle at the time. I can't. It wasn't my bike. Even if I could, doesn't the government have to prove its case, you ask? Nope. Not anymore. Knoxville made running a red light into a civil offense in order to lower their burden of proof. Then they contracted their red light cameras to an Australian company who uses computers to scan the license plate number and generate a form letter. Then a KPD officer rubber stamps the computer output to get around another legality. Any time government is this efficient you know it has to be about collecting money.
3. Spend a significant amount of time, money and effort to defend myself. I intend to do this, because I am fortunate enough to be able to. Not everyone would or could, which will leave the impression that the camera is never wrong. Well I can tell you it is wrong, and what’s being done to citizens in the name of safety is wrong too.
This whole process down to the threatening language on the form letter is designed to make you shut up and pay. None of it makes me any safer. If I get t-boned at an intersection by a red light runner, will I get a souvenir photo of it? I still plan to look both ways before entering an intersection.
I have not broken any law, I'm proof that law abiding citizens can be victims of the scameras. A human officer could not accidentally ticket someone that was over 100 miles away. If a state law were passed stating that 100% of gross revenue from automated traffic enforcement had to go to local schools, how long would these programs last? We the people should make that happen, then we'll see if it is really about safety or not.
Kevin Welch
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