Mowrystown Speed Camera Causes Controversy

Image courtesy of cu-citizenaccess

In the August 29th edition of The Times-Gazette, Jeff Gilliland (jtilliland@timesgazette.com)
reports that Mowrystown is now using a camera to identify and ticket speeding cars.  The camera is mobile and operated by a police officer.

But, rather than pulling people over and issuing a ticket, alleged offenders are sent a ticket by mail.  The ticket is sent to the registered owner of the vehicle, who may or may not be driving the car at the time.  There are at least two complaints from drivers disputing the accuracy of the time given on the ticket.

Vocal Disqus commentator expresses his opinion, below.

I think it is wrong for anyone not a law enforcement officer to issue a ticket. Corporations have no powers of arrest. Having a civilian company who owns the camera issue the ticket is, in my view, unconstitutional. Microsoft may not put you in prison or fine you, they may not ticket you, they have to go through the courts. Also the camera company has conflict of interest. Since they get a cut of the tickets, they may want to set up the cameras so they show people going faster than they actually are, at random, so it would be harder to detect. Hey, if voting machines can be hacked, speed cameras can be set up to surreptitiously increase company profits. That would increase their take as well as the village's take, even if the village is not in on the con. What are the laws on this? If you are worried about people speeding through a school zone, merely placing a cruiser with an officer in it in plain view will stop that. You'd only need the officer there from 7-9 AM and 2-4 PM or whatever the hours are.

Since the ticket is issued in stealth mode, it makes it much harder for people to dispute their speed when they may get the ticket a week or more later. On the spot, they can actively dispute their speed. If they have a Go Pro camera they can dispute it on the spot, or save the video for court, but one or more weeks later and the video is overwritten. Furthermore, they have no means to assure there is actually an officer there operating the camera and not just having it set up to run itself, or having it operated by non-law enforcement personnel. When an officer has to pull you over and issue a ticket on the spot, you know he was there. You have his name and badge number. With a ticket received in the mail you have no proof, no assurance, that a law enforcement officer is indeed on the scene. Because if you saw him, obviously you would not be speeding!


When corporations issue tickets, they are looking only at the bottom line. The village may "claim" they are not doing it for profit, but the company who runs the cameras makes no such statement. OF COURSE they are in it for profit. They have every reason to fudge the results in their favor. So make the village issue tickets as the officer observes illegal behavior, at the time it happens. If someone is going 11 MPH or more over the limit, then stop and ticket them. If the officer observes it and does nothing, then he is guilty of malfeasance.

Maybe the people of Mowrystown will rise up at election time and replace the current council members, then get rid of the cameras, or inundate the council meetings with angry residents demanding their removal. If council will not then listen to the people, the people will know what they are really up to and vote accordingly, or even petition for a recall vote.