Long Delayed Brentwood Documents Reveal Erroneous Speed Camera Tickets

After years of attempting to obtain documents under the Maryland Public Information Act(MPIA), the Town of Brentwood had turned over documents pertaining to errors by their speed camera program. The long delayed documents reveal evidence of multiple complaints by motorists and obvious erroneous citations.

Years of Delays Accessing Public Records
After receiving reports of erroneous citations in 2010, the chairman of the Maryland Drivers Alliance filed a public information act request with the Town of Brentwood in October 2010 (over four years ago) which the town received via certified mail on October 18, 2010. The town sent no reply within the 30 day time limit permitted under Maryland's transparency law. After several attempts to obtain a response from the two failed, we filed a second request for additional documents. The municipality received that second request via certified mail on December 5, 2011, and again did not respond within the 30 day time limit under the MPIA.

The MPIA is Maryland's equivalent of the FOIA which subjects most types of records to public inspection. Local governments are required by law to respond to MPIA requests within 30 days and are permitted to withhold records only under a limited number of exemptions. There is no provision of state law which permits a local government to ignore an MPIA request from anyone.
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