Traffic Cams Ticketed!

Today's I'll Fix That For You Receive a traffic cam ticket in the mail?

“ A Supreme Court  ruling last year requiring that scientists be made available to testify in court cases about lab evidence they prepare may have the added effect of curtailing the use of automated traffic-enforcement cameras to assess criminal penalties. ”

The crux of this story is that various courts have taken a cue from that SCOTUS lab evidence ruling,  and applied it to traffic and speed cams.  “ Judge Wilson said declarations submitted to the court  by the private enforcement company to support the red-light infractions "contain testimonial hearsay," without which the officer cannot identify the photographs as taken by the company, cannot attest they pertain to any actual traffic violation and cannot say with certainty the camera equipment was in working order at the time of the violation. ” If states were really interested in protecting, not taxing the public, speed cams like this would be in use. The effect of these rulings is that methods for obtaining, transmitting and storing information about infractions are "not admissible in the absence of a live witness with personal knowledge of the procedures."  Which translates into requiring speed cam suppliers to send technicians to testify at ticket hearings.  There are not enough technicians, and they're too far away to travel to every court hearing anyway.  Cases are being thrown-out wholesale.  This of course will have the same effect on tax hungry city officials as failing to pay Louie the loan-shark his vigorish.  Stay tuned. ASIDE: Mo Sup makes regular trips to Tidewater,VA to see family.  During a recent trip she noticed that the yellow light timing at stop lights in Gloucester had gone from something reasonable,  to about 1 second. The thought occurred to her that this is precisely what Baltimore City did when when traffic cams were installed.  She skoonched  forward at a stop light, and looked up.  Sure enough,  perched high atop a pole - the camera. My suggestion that she use her 9mm to shoot the sumbitch fell on deaf ears however. She's such a pussy sometimes.