(no subject)
Have you heard about my stupid state's photo radar program? We have photo radar cameras on our FREEWAYS, for crying out loud. Most people who receive photo radar tickets (yours truly included) ignore them. There are a few reasons for this:
1) When they come in the mail, they're not an official summons. You actually have to be served the ticket by an actual process server. This is expensive, so it only happens with people who have many, many such tickets.
2) They're unconstitutional on their face. First of all, you can't face your accuser when it's a camera. Second, they result in unequal enforcement of the law: out-of-state visitors do not always receive tickets, and standing policy is that state officials, judges, and other VIPs don't, either.
3) If you don't pay and they don't track you down and serve you, the tickets expire after 120 days and are not only unenforceable, it's as though they never existed. Since it takes a while for a) your court date to arrive and b) the county to realize that you're not going to pay the ticket, they only have about three weeks to arrange for the process server. (Take mine, for instance. I got "flashed" on 8/11. My court date is 11/10, and my ticket expires on 12/11. It'll take a week or so for them to get their act together enough to send out a server, if they do. So it's only three weeks that I can't answer my door.)
Since most people do what I do, the program has generated QUITE as much revenue as our previous Governor now Homeland Security Secretary (shudder) envisioned when she gave the go ahead. So this is what they've decided to do:
Maricopa County to weigh $20 photo radar fee
PHOENIX (AP) -- Members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors are holding a hearing Wednesday to discuss adding a $20 fee to photo enforcement tickets issued by the Department of Public Safety.
Drivers who fail to pay their photo enforcement tickets would face the higher fees.
County officials said the higher fee would help offset increased costs for administering photo enforcement cases.
If approved, the higher fees would begin in December.
Maricopa County to weigh $20 photo radar fee
My question - how are they going to collect the $20 from people who don't pay the rest of the ticket?
ETA: Ah. They're applying the fee to people who fight their tickets in court. All the more reason to ignore them!
1) When they come in the mail, they're not an official summons. You actually have to be served the ticket by an actual process server. This is expensive, so it only happens with people who have many, many such tickets.
2) They're unconstitutional on their face. First of all, you can't face your accuser when it's a camera. Second, they result in unequal enforcement of the law: out-of-state visitors do not always receive tickets, and standing policy is that state officials, judges, and other VIPs don't, either.
3) If you don't pay and they don't track you down and serve you, the tickets expire after 120 days and are not only unenforceable, it's as though they never existed. Since it takes a while for a) your court date to arrive and b) the county to realize that you're not going to pay the ticket, they only have about three weeks to arrange for the process server. (Take mine, for instance. I got "flashed" on 8/11. My court date is 11/10, and my ticket expires on 12/11. It'll take a week or so for them to get their act together enough to send out a server, if they do. So it's only three weeks that I can't answer my door.)
Since most people do what I do, the program has generated QUITE as much revenue as our previous Governor now Homeland Security Secretary (shudder) envisioned when she gave the go ahead. So this is what they've decided to do:
Maricopa County to weigh $20 photo radar fee
PHOENIX (AP) -- Members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors are holding a hearing Wednesday to discuss adding a $20 fee to photo enforcement tickets issued by the Department of Public Safety.
Drivers who fail to pay their photo enforcement tickets would face the higher fees.
County officials said the higher fee would help offset increased costs for administering photo enforcement cases.
If approved, the higher fees would begin in December.
Maricopa County to weigh $20 photo radar fee
My question - how are they going to collect the $20 from people who don't pay the rest of the ticket?
ETA: Ah. They're applying the fee to people who fight their tickets in court. All the more reason to ignore them!