Quote:
Originally Posted by mossguy
I'm with Mike on this. Red light means STOP. Why is this such a problem to some?
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As stated above, there is a lot of corruption in the system.
Also, they generate a huge amount of tickets on "rolling rights." I.e., not coming to a complete stop on a right turn. So, you roll through a right turn at 1 mph, and it's a $500 ticket.
That's totally bogus. So much so, that many cities wouldn't issue tickets for that silliness.
The camera companies, however, make a % of the tickets. So they inserted provisions in the contracts requiring the police department to issue those tickets! Because not all that many people blow through red lights, but huge numbers don't come to a COMPLETE stop on a right turn.
How dumb is that? A private company dictating what law enforcement has to do? A police dept being contractually obligated to issue a certain # of tickets, thus giving up their ability to use their discretion and judgment in issuing tickets? There is no way that is constitutional.
It is also unconstitutional the way the tickets are issued and served. In California, they just stick the ticket in the mail! Serving by mail isn't enough to guarantee that the defendant has received notice. What if the notice got lost in the mail? Now the defendant has been convicted of a crime, with no notice.