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| PhotoCop: Refunds for Some, But more tickets to come | | Print | |
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JP's BLRP Many people, 16,800 are due refunds for fines paid to Minneapolis for traffic violations. The MN Supreme Court Affirmed lower court rulings against Minneapolis's Red-light enforcement program called PhotoCop. However, rest assured many more unconstitutional tickets are on their way, state wide! Those who will receive refunds can thank Lawyer Marshall Tanick who represented the class-action lawsuit. He said about $2.5 million is being distributed in refunds agreed to in a settlement. Tanick said amounts vary depending on how big a ticket was paid, but typical refunds will be about $120. The Minneapolis photo surveillance program, which operated in 2005 and 2006, used images of vehicles that ran red lights to cite the owners of the vehicles. It is clear now that this original program was designed from the beginning to help implement a state-wide program.
Since implemented in Minneapolis, the legal argument that ultimately resulted in refunds, has always been that the PhotoCop program puts the burden of proving one's self innocence, on the civilian, and not the enforcement agency. In addition, State law prohibits local traffic regulations from being in conflict with state law. The Minneapolis ordinance conflicts with state law because it shifts liability for traffic light violations from the driver to the owner. These are legitimate arguments, however, in researching the chain of events, the articles, & court decisions, it becomes quite obvious what the state's next coarse of action was going to be. The Transportation Committee advanced legislation this week that would allow local jurisdictions to implement automated traffic enforcement systems (photo cop) at traffic signals. In 2005, Minneapolis had the photo cop system in place for nine months, resulting in a 31% decrease in traffic accidents at the monitored intersections. A lawsuit was filed and the Supreme Court ruled that photo cop was illegal because city ordinances are pre-empted by state law, which requires uniformity in traffic laws. State law holds that the driver, not the vehicle owner, must be cited for traffic offenses, unless specified otherwise. The court ruled that the city would need specification in statute that they could ticket the vehicle owner in order to legally use the photo cop system. This bill provides the statutory authority for cities to implement photo cop. Some changes have been made to the legislation to address concerns over the vehicle owner receiving the citation. Before a citation can be issued, all images must be inspected and certified by a police officer. Citations must be issued via mail and postmarked within 21 days and include a copy of the photo image taken by the device. The vehicle owner is guilty of a petty misdemeanor unless they can provide: a police report showing that the vehicle was stolen; a lease agreement with the name/address of lessee; documentation of a title transfer; or the vehicle was an emergency vehicle. The committee also added an amendment providing that a vehicle owner may use the photo images sent to them as evidence that they were not driving the vehicle at the time of the violation. Because the committee felt that improvements were made that will help hold the actual signal violator responsible, and the photo cop system will positively affect driving behavior, the bill was re-referred to the Judiciary Committee. The bigger Picture The arguments for programs like the Red-light PhotoCop cameras is always safety. However, the driving goals behind such programs are really increased revenues, and subjecting you to the "Big Brother" surveillance society/Police state. Programs like Minnesota's are being implemented all over the U.S. or are already in effect. The database centralization of The Dept. of Homeland Security, the NSA, the CIA, FBI, and the United Nations, is being used to track your every move, profile your behavior, & subject your liberties to a Computerized Authority. Always lessening governments burden of Due Process, and proving your guilt. Millions of American are loosing their jobs or taking pay cuts, cut-backs in necessary services are the norm, but the funding for Surveillance Society/Police State Programs is constantly expanding. You can put a stop to all this. Get off your but & let's Take Back America.
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In 2004, despite knowing that the PhotoCop program was in clear violation of MN Law, Minneapolis under the advisement of Ornstein, pushed forward with the program anyway.