Houblog

Hat tip to Instapundit for the above quote and link to this story out of Cleveland. How long until we see the same things here?

Motorists prove red-light cameras don’t work:
[Dave Hatala] got a ticket in the mail saying he was speeding on Chester Avenue at East 71st Street. He was cited for going 48 mph in a 35 mph zone. The only problem is that Hatala insisted he never went that fast. “This was wrong, and I’m willing to fight that,” he said.

Along with his ticket, Hatala got pictures showing his van and another car that appeared to be going faster.

Hatala was lucky. He worked for a local TV station, which decided to look into it. Taking the pictures to a university math professor who proved that the ticket belonged to the other car. The judge dismissed the case, but Hatala was still out the lost time from work. Well, maybe he wasn’t, if the station determined it was part of an investigative report, but how many of us are going to be that lucky?

Bill and Sue Faber of Massillon said they haven’t been in Cleveland for six months, but the city sent them a ticket. “No way we could be in Cleveland,” Faber said.

“Do you have witnesses for that?” Pohlman asked.

“Yes, we do,” Faber said.

Yet Cleveland sent the ticket showing a car speeding, but the plate belongs to the Faber’s truck. [Channel 5 investigative reporter] Pohlman said you can’t read the license in the picture at all. He said it appears Cleveland guessed and sent the ticket anyway.

They guessed, and didn’t even bother to compare the description of the vehicle from the state record to what was on the pictures. This is innocent until proven guilty? Anyone want to bet the officer responsible for increasing city revenue reviewing the tapes didn’t even get a negative review?

We can only hope that the people in charge of the computers are less reality-impared than those in Savannah, Georgia, which let anybody check, not for descriptions of the vehicle, but sensitive personal data:

If you’ve been caught on a red light camera lately, you may have more bad news on the way. Your private information may have been seen by identity thieves all over the world. That’s what 8800 motorists who traveled through Savannah, Georgia learned last week. Identity thieves have had easy access to the sensitive personal information on motorists who tripped the city’s red light camera since last February.

A citizen noticed the problem when he searched for a name on Google and found the the photos, name, date of birth, address and sometimes Social Security Numbers of ticket recipients in the results.

Red light cameras capture more than just a photo of you and your car when you pass under their view. The information is cross indexed with even more private information contained in the state’s massive databases.

Just remember, Chief Hurtt says it can’t happen here! Maybe we need one of these for Texas. (Warning: link contains audio.)

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Local Politics, Random Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.