My OperaThe Police Chief Makes News!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 7:16:53 PM
This is not totally neighborhood. In fact, barely at all. It is, however, a particular bugaboo of the editor.
It refers to this article in the Washington Examiner, entitled Police chief denounces 'cowardly' iPhone users monitoring speed traps. And no, the editor has received two speeding tickets in his lifetime, one of which doesn't really count and will be discussed below.
The editor has for some time viewed speed traps and red light cameras as simple revenue generators. He has been driving downtown and around DC and the Metro area, for a long time. He simply does not recall a person in DC being pulled over after blatantly running a red light. That says that police aren't everywhere, of course. It also says also that most other people have never seen such a stop either. The editor knows what can happen when the police watch for such problems: They see them. For several months, before the Convention Center was built and this neighborhood had a far worse drug problem, the Mike Smith type of cops--well before Mike Smith--would catch red light runners at Ninth and M. Not so much to stop red light running, but to get an excuse to search cars for drugs. It helped.
But let's face it, the didactic effect of seeing a red light runner pulled over isn't all that high on the civic concern list. Revenue is, and now it can be automated and contracted out.
The editor has read about the iPhone thing for a week or two now. Sort of finds it a bit inventive. But it isn't really new. If you're concerned about speed traps, try here. They have Ellendale, DE in there, as they should.
Ellendale is a little wide spot on Highway 16 in Delaware between Greenwood and Milton. The editor can understand being careful about a 25mph speed limit in the town. But they have something up their sleeves: When you leave the town headed east to Milton and Rehoboth, and you see wide open road,. the speed doesn't go up for a few hundred yards. Nothing there, just no increase in speed limit where almost every other town puts it. So you speed up, to say 35. Then they get their revenue. The editor has not stopped for anything in that town, nor spent a cent there in at least 30 years.
The editor is aware that many studies say that red light cameras and speed cameras increase safety. He is also aware that other studies differ. The only thing almost all of the studies have in common is that they bring extra revenue to their jurisdictions.
Sorry for the rant, but that's why they invented blogs.
It refers to this article in the Washington Examiner, entitled Police chief denounces 'cowardly' iPhone users monitoring speed traps. And no, the editor has received two speeding tickets in his lifetime, one of which doesn't really count and will be discussed below.
The editor has for some time viewed speed traps and red light cameras as simple revenue generators. He has been driving downtown and around DC and the Metro area, for a long time. He simply does not recall a person in DC being pulled over after blatantly running a red light. That says that police aren't everywhere, of course. It also says also that most other people have never seen such a stop either. The editor knows what can happen when the police watch for such problems: They see them. For several months, before the Convention Center was built and this neighborhood had a far worse drug problem, the Mike Smith type of cops--well before Mike Smith--would catch red light runners at Ninth and M. Not so much to stop red light running, but to get an excuse to search cars for drugs. It helped.
But let's face it, the didactic effect of seeing a red light runner pulled over isn't all that high on the civic concern list. Revenue is, and now it can be automated and contracted out.
The editor has read about the iPhone thing for a week or two now. Sort of finds it a bit inventive. But it isn't really new. If you're concerned about speed traps, try here. They have Ellendale, DE in there, as they should.
Ellendale is a little wide spot on Highway 16 in Delaware between Greenwood and Milton. The editor can understand being careful about a 25mph speed limit in the town. But they have something up their sleeves: When you leave the town headed east to Milton and Rehoboth, and you see wide open road,. the speed doesn't go up for a few hundred yards. Nothing there, just no increase in speed limit where almost every other town puts it. So you speed up, to say 35. Then they get their revenue. The editor has not stopped for anything in that town, nor spent a cent there in at least 30 years.
The editor is aware that many studies say that red light cameras and speed cameras increase safety. He is also aware that other studies differ. The only thing almost all of the studies have in common is that they bring extra revenue to their jurisdictions.
Sorry for the rant, but that's why they invented blogs.
