Cracking down on red-light runners in Texas has become a big business.
It has generated around $183 million for the state since red- light cameras became legal in 2007. And the cameras have generated millions for cities as well.
But a number of drivers no longer pay those tickets.
In Fort Worth last year, 224,307 tickets were mailed to motorists who run ran red lights or didn’t stop long enough before turning right. Of those, 106,580 were paid and 116,074 were sent to collections agencies, city records for the 2018 fiscal year showed.
This new data comes as proposals to turn the cameras off around the state are being considered by the Texas Legislature.
“This definitely violates due process. If your accuser is a camera, you cannot face him in court,” state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, the Bedford Republican who is helping lead this effort, recently told a legislative committee. “The most outrageous aspect of red-light cameras to me is how it turns our legal system upside down. You are guilty until you prove yourself innocent."
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Rep. Strickland is pretty much wrong about our system. Unless you are wealthy, you are pretty much guilty unless you can prove otherwise. The cards are stacked against you in court. The ADA reads the charges, a "sworn" police officer has their "official" statement read into the record. That you are sworn in means nothing. No one reads any "official" statement into the record on your behalf. The base assumption is that you wouldn't be in court unless you were guilty. The gavel comes down and yo go to jail. And if you have a public defender, just go to jail.
ReplyDeleteIt is really just not worth being a screw-up.
Guilty until you prove yourself innocent. Somethings wrong in this country
ReplyDeleteYeah, some people thing they are innocent, even when they are caught on camera. The picture is worth a thousand words, more so than their thousand denials. Got your tag, got your car, and many times, got your face in the picture. And you think they need more proof of your guilt. I happen to agree, if you're guilty, you're guilty. If you're not, prove it. They have the picture.
ReplyDeletea camera is the perfect eyewitness to a crime, because the camera is completely unbias and it records a visual record of the crime at the moment it happens. The picture enables everyone who looks at it to be an eyewitness to the crime also.
ReplyDeleteAah there are a few people on eastern shore still riding. Illegally but still riding after speed camera photos
ReplyDeleteagain
ReplyDeleteyou have a right to CONFRONT your accuser in Court, and right to due process
constant violations of our Constitution
Some people will never understand that 5:30
DeleteSorry, but I feel impelled to inform you that dems are not still winning
I sure do hate it when someone wipes Vaseline on the Lense Tut Tut.
ReplyDeleteSold under the guise of "public safety". People should ruin them every chance they get. All of these type of ticketing machines have an acceptable margin of error. It is unconstitutional.
ReplyDelete@4:26, So what? I don't think you deserve a red cent if no accident occurred and an officer didn't have to expend time writing a ticket. How about you tell all the jobless deadbeats to get off welfare instead of trying to setup a system to bleed people to pay for a victimless traffic violation to help fund the deadbeats? I'm not paying anything. I'll take each and every one to court just to bog the court down and cause them a net loss.
ReplyDeleteApril 4, 2019 at 12:14 AM:
ReplyDeleteThere you go everybody. That's what a comment from someone who ignores red lights looks like. We se him, or someone like him, every day. Jerks that think THEY don't have to obey traffic control devices. And THEY are a menace to every other driver on the highway.
@10:32 Nice strawman. That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
ReplyDeleteSee I can say
There you go everybody. That's what a Section 8 for life, welfare check collecting, food stamp card carrying, deadbeat breeder who knows the system is failing and is supporting programs to keep it funded looks like. We see it or someone like it, every day. Jerks that think they are entitled to sit on their asses unemployed and have everything given to them so they support anything the government does to steal money from others ensuring their benefits are there. They are a parasite and a menace to free societies everywhere.