Speed cameras in Montgomery County, Maryland have been ticketing motorists for quite some time now. Under their program, the tickets go to the owner of the vehicle instead of the driver. This is a common flaw in ticket camera systems across the country.

Local authorities have decided that it’s acceptable to do this to avoid the hassle of tracking down the actual violators.

The average motorist who receives a speed camera ticket can either fight it in court or send in a check. However, the amount of effort and time necessary to get a speed camera ticket dismissed is substantial. As a result, most drivers — even innocent ones — choose to just pay the ticket in order to avoid taking time off work to go to court.

Limited court costs are a key reason why ticket camera programs are so profitable for local governments.

According to the Washington Post, police in Montgomery County are bucking the trend and have decided to use their union resources to avoid paying camera tickets:

Among the thousands of drivers who have been issued $40 fines after being nabbed by Montgomery County’s new speed cameras are scores of county police officers. The difference is, many of the officers are refusing to pay. The officers are following the advice of their union, which says the citations are issued not to the driver but to the vehicle’s owner — in this case, the county.

So basically, they’ve decided to exploit the flaw in the system that they helped create. The article continues:

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A motorist who became an internet celebrity after video of him being stunned with a taser by a Utah Highway Patrolman appeared on YouTube will receive $40,000 as part of a lawsuit settlement with the state, the Utah attorney general’s office said Monday.

Jared Massey claimed in civil lawsuit filed in January that his civil rights were violated because Trooper Jon Gardner fired his taser before telling Massey he was under arrest. The confrontation was widely viewed on the internet after Massey obtained a copy of the video taken by the cruiser’s dashboard camera.

The video has been viewed on YouTube at least 1.7 million times and shows Gardner drawing his stun gun after the 28-year-old Massey refused to accept a speeding ticket and was ordered out of the vehicle.

Massey’s attorney, Bob Sykes, said he’s pleased with the settlement offer.

“They made what we consider to be a very fair offer of a significant amount of money,” he said.

The Highway Patrol said the trooper’s use of the taser was justified, but that his attitude was a problem. They put Gardner on administrative leave for a few weeks and said he received training in conflict resolution. Gardner was primarily put on leave for his own safety after state officials received numerous complaints.

Sykes said state attorneys offered to settle the lawsuit before ever officially responding to it, probably because of the video evidence.

“It’s pretty damaging,” he said. “The force used under these circumstances was nothing less than outrageous.”

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Brandon Nichols was driving home from an early lunch in Bluff City, TN in November when he was pulled over for driving 60 mph in a 45 mph zone.

Nichols hired a lawyer and managed to work out a deal in which he avoided racking up any traffic violation points on his license. He had to take a driver education course and pay the $59.75 fine and court costs associated with the ticket.

But the process proved to be more difficult than Nichols thought because he had problems finding a lawyer willing to take his case.

“Most of them just laughed and acted like it was a regular thing,” he said after pleading guilty to the ticket and paying the fine in traffic court on Tuesday. “One lawyer said [Bluff City] was known for being a speed trap.”

Bluff City’s 3.6-mile section of U.S. Highway 11E is one of Sullivan County’s 14 speed traps, according to the National Motorists Association’s Speed Trap Exchange Web site.

The 12 people who have posted comments to the city’s entry on the Web site gripe about the constant police presence on this section of the highway, the sudden drop in the speed limit as the road enters the area of the Piney Flats crossroads, and the amount of money they claim the city earns from tickets each year.

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Italian appeals court rules that tickets issued by plainclothes traffic police are illegal.

Italy’s Court of Cassation yesterday ruled invalid a speeding ticket issued by an off-duty police officer in a decision that could outlaw the deceptive use of speed traps. The municipal officer was not in uniform when he stopped a motorist identified only as Sandra S. in Reggio Emilia in 2003. When a local magistrate overturned the ticket, the municipality appealed. In its decision yesterday, the appellate court’s second civil division rejected the prosecution’s arguments, citing Article 183 of the municipal traffic code.

“When working on the highway, officers responsible for regulating traffic must be visible from a distance through the use of distinctive clothing or uniforms,” the appeals court judges wrote.

Since the officer was neither in uniform nor visible from a distance, his citation was not issued under municipal police authority, the court concluded. The consumer watchdog group Codacons believes that this sets a precedent that could outlaw hidden speed traps and serve as the basis for thousands of appeals. The group also complained today about motorists being trapped by red light cameras at intersections with yellow times set too short. Codacons spokesman Fabio Galli told Gazzetta di Modena that there was no reason not to add a second or two of yellow time to keep motorists from slamming the brakes out of fear, which can cause an accident, in order to avoid an automated ticket.

POLICE in England are handing back 300 fines to drivers after speed guns were found to be wrongly set up.

Lancashire police have been ordered to rescind the fines, including those for drivers on the Fylde, after a probe by an independent police watchdog.

Anti-speed camera campaigners say lives could have been ruined by the faulty cameras as motorists risked bans which could cost them their living.

Driver Stephen Hunter ,of Devonshire Road, Blackpool, received a bill for £185 and had four points removed from his license after being caught by a speed gun on Clifton Drive, South Shore, on July 18 last year.

He said: “This is a very serious thing to have happened.

“Luckily for me, the points I got did not mean I lost my license but it could have for some people and that can be their livelihood gone.

“I was on my way to work at 7.20am when the camera supposedly caught me. I was re-doing my mortgage and my wife was getting ready to go abroad for work so with all that going on I overlooked paying the fine.

“So because it went to court I had to pay £150 with £35 costs. I just accepted it but this shows that actually if you get a speeding ticket perhaps you should question it.

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