Police Details, Cameras, & Enforcement Methods

Equilibria said:
Translation: Seems like the majority of people in Massachusetts will be punished for their lifestyle choices with potentially overzealous and corruptly-implemented automated fines!

www.justice.gov

Representative of Chicago Area Red-Light Camera Company Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison

CHICAGO —A sales agent for a Chicago-area red-light camera company, Company A, has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for conspiring to pay bribes to a public official and for filing a false tax return.
www.justice.gov www.justice.gov
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In the Boston urban core (which is the topic of this forum, and where most of these cameras will be installed), more than 50% of trips within city limits are done outside a car. I'd estimate its more like 60-70%. If we had better bike, ped, and transit infrastructure, this could easily be 80+% (a lot of people take ubers and what not because transit is not reliable and biking is unsafe). How about the majority not be in constant state of danger from 2-ton metal boxes just because people can't be bothered to follow the actual law?
 
Stlin said:
+11 is hard to actually hit in the city with 25 limits......
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I regularly see people blasting down the section of Beacon between the Public Gardens and Mass Ave. That's a good place to start as they are easily hitting 40-50. I was also downtown one evening a few years ago when there was like an entire street racing ring going on in the financial district. It felt like I was in the middle of a Fast and the Furious movie with all these souped up cars revving their engines and absolutely BLASTING down the roads. I think they ended up taking it to a parking garage and racing there as well, even scarier than the roads honestly. It's the one time I found myself looking for a police officer and unable to find one anywhere.
 
sneijder said:
In the Boston urban core (which is the topic of this forum, and where most of these cameras will be installed), more than 50% of trips within city limits are done outside a car. I'd estimate its more like 60-70%. If we had better bike, ped, and transit infrastructure, this could easily be 80+% (a lot of people take ubers and what not because transit is not reliable and biking is unsafe). How about the majority not be in constant state of danger from 2-ton metal boxes just because people can't be bothered to follow the actual law?
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And how much of Massachusetts' population and area are located in the Boston urban core? We're talking 60-70% of trips taken by probably about 1/6 of the population.

The forum is about Boston. The law is for the whole state. We're discussing the law.
 
Equilibria said:
And how much of Massachusetts' population and area are located in the Boston urban core? We're talking 60-70% of trips taken by probably about 1/6 of the population.

The forum is about Boston. The law is for the whole state. We're discussing the law.
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Read the article. The bill is to "allow cities and towns to deploy speed cameras to help catch and ticket heavy-footed motorists."

If speed cameras are unpopular in a rural suburban town, there is a strong incentive against the leaders of that town deploying speed cameras.

It's up to municaplities to decide whether to deploy speed cameras or not. I certainly hope they are deployed in Boston. I don't give a fuck if they are deployed in Gosnold. Gosnold is a distraction.

This forum is about Boston. We are discussing the effects of the passage of this bill on Boston (and Cambridge, Somerville, etc), not Gosnold.
 
Equilibria said:
Translation: Seems like the majority of people in Massachusetts will be punished for their lifestyle choices with potentially overzealous and corruptly-implemented automated fines!

www.justice.gov

Representative of Chicago Area Red-Light Camera Company Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison

CHICAGO —A sales agent for a Chicago-area red-light camera company, Company A, has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for conspiring to pay bribes to a public official and for filing a false tax return.
www.justice.gov www.justice.gov
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If we didn't do things because a guy in the field tried to bribe a Chicago politician, we wouldn't do anything in this country.
 
Equilibria said:
The opportunity for corruption comes from the fact that once this is legal, companies that manage these cameras and often collect the fines will start hitting up every municipality in the Commonwealth hawking their system and the revenue it would generate. In that environment, graft is inevitable. My read is that folks here wouldn't care about that, because the negative incentive for driving only gets stronger as the fines get higher and the thresholds on the cameras get even more hair-trigger.
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Keep in mind that in MA, unlike most other states including IL, our towns and cities basically don't get to keep any of the revenue generated from tickets, written by cops or otherwise. They get a "reimbursement" from the RMV for costs, but it's a fairly token amount - for example, Cambridge received 95k in 2023, against 10.5M in parking ticket revenue. The same applies to these cameras - net of expenses, any revenue is to be deposited in the MA Transportation Trust Fund.
 
bigeman312 said:
Read the article. The bill is to "allow cities and towns to deploy speed cameras to help catch and ticket heavy-footed motorists."

If speed cameras are unpopular in a rural suburban town, there is a strong incentive against the leaders of that town deploying speed cameras.

It's up to municaplities to decide whether to deploy speed cameras or not. I certainly hope they are deployed in Boston. I don't give a fuck if they are deployed in Gosnold. Gosnold is a distraction.

This forum is about Boston. We are discussing the effects of the passage of this bill on Boston (and Cambridge, Somerville, etc), not Gosnold.
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My initial comment was a response to the tone of the comment it quoted. The details of this law as I read them (and thank you to those who have provided additional context) seem workable to me, but we aren't really debating the merits of the proposal, so no need to continue this argument.
 
ritchiew said:
Like I was saying, though, graft is possible in basically any government program. That doesn't make those government programs bad. The graft is bad. For example, we can have an MBTA and still prosecute anyone trying to bribe the MBTA. Likewise, we can have traffic enforcement cameras and prosecute anyone from those companies trying bribe government officials.


The camera system will not penalize someone for simply driving. It would ticket someone if they are speeding. You will still have a right to drive. You do not have a right to speed. Speeding is against the law.
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Driving isn’t a right, either. Driving is a privilege that can be revoked (and which should be revoked much more frequently).
 
Justbuildit said:
Wasn't familiar with any other tax raising proposals except for making candy subject to state sales tax, from which it's currently exempt. Obviously the revenue generated from the traffic cameras would fund the capex and opex of these systems. Generally I think Healey has been pretty clear that new activities are not being funded by new taxes, and that the "new" $1M+ tax is being allocated to either schools or transit per statute.

With the speed limit buffers (11 over or 6 over) there seems to be some leeway for "normal" drivers.
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New taxes on candy, local option taxes on hotels, taxes on synthetic nicotine products, and taxes on drug manufacturers. In addition to red light, school bus and speed camera which are more about revenue raises.

Remember read end crashes increase after red light cameras are installed.
 
Jeremi said:
Driving isn’t a right, either. Driving is a privilege that can be revoked (and which should be revoked much more frequently).
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Lots of these rules are written just like zoning codes - to allow selective enforcement, pretextual stops and raise revenue. For example, speed limits are not necessarily tied to a road’s engineering design limits.
 
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