Speed-camera Tally: 2 Months, 40401 Tickets

It seems everybody has been caught by the state's new speed cameras.
Well, not everybody, but more than 40,000 tickets have gone out so far.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety said Tuesday that it has issued 40,401 speeding tickets in the first two months of its speed-enforcement camera program.
That's a windfall of at least $6.6 million for the state if all the violators pay up.
About 60 cameras are in use. Of those, 40 are mounted on vehicles and 20 are at fixed locations along Valley freeways.
DPS officials expect to activate an additional 12 stationary cameras by the end of the year in the metro Phoenix area.
Across the state, they hope to have 100 cameras in use by February.
The cameras capture video and license-plate numbers of drivers breaking the speed limit by 10 mph or more. At that point, drivers get a speeding ticket. At 20 mph over, the offense becomes 'criminal speeding.' Of all the violations, 661 have been criminal.
The highest speed the cameras have logged so far is 130 mph.
If 40,000 sounds like a lot of tickets, know that the cameras have snapped even more photos. Drivers have activated the cameras 166,176 times on freeways statewide since the program began Sept. 26, state officials said.
Three out of four images captured by stationary and mobile speed-enforcement cameras this fall were discarded. Bart Graves, a DPS spokesman, said tickets are scrapped if they don't clearly show the driver or the license plate, and that happens frequently.
The disparity between activations and citations will lessen over time, Graves said.
Contractors and DPS employees are still fine-tuning the system and adjusting camera angles.
'Our goal here is no bad tickets,' Graves said.
The DPS began putting the speed cameras in place after Gov. Janet Napolitano called for them early this year. The DPS cameras are different from a string of fixed cameras installed by Scottsdale several years ago, which are currently inactive.
Law-enforcement officials say speed cameras promote safety on the road, while opponents decry them as a mere revenue stream or a way to cut back on hiring patrol officers.
'Photo enforcement does not replace the Highway Patrol officer,' DPS Director Roger Vanderpool said in a written statement.
'It cannot pull over impaired drivers or aggressive drivers or distracted drivers. It can help slow people down, and that goes a long way toward preventing serious injury or even fatal collisions.'
Vanderpool points to last week's special operation, when speed-enforcement cameras were in place every 20 miles along Interstate 10 and Interstate 40.
During eight hours on Nov. 26, cameras snapped photos of 505 motorists and ticketed more than 400.
Vanderpool believes the cameras made holiday travel safer.
Along those stretches this year, there were only two collisions compared with last year, when there were 29 crashes during the same eight-hour period.
How it works
The fixed cameras along Valley freeways and the mobile cameras in DPS vehicles work basically the same way.
Once triggered, the device records six seconds of footage designed to capture the driver's behavior and traffic conditions.
Within seven days, a technician will view the footage for clarity. A citation is mailed to the vehicle's registered owner if the image is clear.
A speeding ticket costs $165, not including about $20 in surcharges.
The car's owner has 40 days to pay the citation by mail or on the Web. If the owner was not the driver, the DPS must be notified of the correct driver.
If the ticket isn't addressed within 55 days, it goes to Justice Court.
For those who don't believe they were speeding, they can enter their citation number to see their video footage online at azdps.gov.
Grass-roots foes
The cameras have spurred a grass-roots opposition movement. Some groups have protested, while other demonstrations have targeted the cameras themselves.
The DPS recently assigned an investigator to determine who is obstructing cameras on freeways. Silly String and gps with backup camera Post-it Notes have been left on camera lenses stationed along Loop 101, Arizona 51U.S. 60. DPS officials say the acts are attempts to prevent speeders from being ticketed.
Members of CameraFRAUD, a grass-roots organization opposed to speed-enforcement cameras, say cameras are poor substitutes for officers. D.T. Arneson, a CameraFRAUD spokesman, said his group has doubled in membership to about 200 strong in recent days because of the cameras.
Arneson's group also believes that speed-enforcement cameras don't necessarily make roads safer.
'We're just outraged by the process,' Arneson said. 'All it comes down to is money as opposed to safetyas opposed to a public good.'


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