Dallas, Texas based Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) earlier this month became the second major photo enforcement camera company to be busted for operating without a license. Proceedings are scheduled to continue today in a Dallas County courtroom as 192nd Civil District Court Judge Craig Smith decides the appropriate remedy for the situation.

On November 19, Smith issued an order declaring the company in violation of a state law requiring commercial firms that provide evidence for use in court to have a license that proves their employees have passed strict criminal background checks and other requirements. Dallas attorney Lloyd Ward sued ACS after the company mailed a ticket to his home.

“Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of failure to obtain appropriate license and bond under the Texas Occupation Code Section 1702.101 et seq. is hereby granted,” Judge Smith wrote.

Smith’s order agreed with a May ruling by the Louisiana State Board of Private Investigator Examiners which found Australian camera operator Redflex Traffic Systems had been illegally operating an investigation service in that state. Both Louisiana and Texas impose similar restrictions on commercial services that provide evidence for use in court.

“Unless the person holds a license as an investigations company, a person may not… offer to perform the services of an investigations company,” Texas Code Section 1702 states. “A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing… information related to… crime or wrongs done; or… engages in the business of securing… evidence for use before a court, board, officer, or investigating committee… furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public.”

ACS is not the only company on the hot seat in Texas for operating without a license. Ward on November 24 filed a separate federal class action complaint against Redflex for willful negligence in providing unlicensed investigative services for the cities of Duncanville and Plano. To ensure all the major photo enforcement vendors are covered, Ward filed another case against Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions (ATS) for its operations in Amarillo. Neither ACS, ATS nor Redflex hold the required Class A private investigation company license, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records.

The maximum criminal penalty for operating such a service without a license is a year in jail and a $4000 fine. The same penalty applies to any individuals found guilty of hiring an unlicensed company. Ward, instead, is seeking the return of illegally collected fines. In the Redflex case, for example, that amounts to $3 million. Ultimate success would mean the full refund of every photo citation issued in Texas.

At least one photo enforcement vendor has actually used arguments similar to Ward’s in court. ATS brought suit against its competitor, Redflex, after learning the company illegally operated radar units without the appropriate certifications from the Federal Communications Commission. ATS now wants a court to invalidate a statewide Arizona contract adopted while Redflex had no legal right to operate speed camera equipment in the US. Redflex even volunteered to provide refunds over the incident, but state officials turned down the offer.

A full copy of the Dallas County decision is available in a 50k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Ward v. Affiliated Computer Services (District Court, Dallas County, Texas, 11/19/2008)

Over a one-year period of time and on a total of just six miles of road, the two communities wrote a combined amount of $775,000 in tickets.

Why so many tickets? Here’s a hint; they say it’s not about the money.

News 8 collected speeding ticket data from all the cities along the Bush Turnpike and the Dallas North Tollway.

Between the cities of Dallas, Plano and Frisco, there is 22.5 miles of toll road. During a recent one year period on that stretch of road, those cities wrote a combined 100 speeding tickets.

However, Irving, which has four miles of toll road, wrote nearly 2,000 tickets. And then there is the city of Garland. While it has a tiny two-mile stretch area on the Turnpike, it wrote more tickets than any other city, almost 2,500 of them. Garland collected almost $400,000 in revenue.

“From the police departments standpoint, no,” said Joe Harn, a Garland Police Department spokesperson, when asked if the tickets were about money. “Ours is about safety.”

News 8 shared findings with attorney Everett Newton, who defends motorists at traffic court.

“It’s kind of like if you go fishing, you go to the pond where the fish are,” he said. “You don’t go fishing where there aren’t any fish.” And here’s what makes the Bush Turnpike a good pond, the speed limit is set artificially low. “I think it creates a really, really bad situation, potentially for drivers who drive on that stretch of roadway,” Newton said.

In a series of reports, News 8 has shown that the North Texas Tollway Authority did not follow state guidelines for setting speed limits. Transportation sources say within the year the NTTA plans to raise the current speed limit on the Bush Turnpike from 60 to 70. Meanwhile, they have been set at 60 for years.

“I don’t believe the speed limits have, in any way, set a traffic trap for motorists,” said Sherita Coffelt, the NTTA’s spokesperson.

Eleven local police departments along the toll system can patrol its roads. But most, like Dallas, Plano and Frisco, leave patrols to the State Highway Patrol. For that service, NTTA pays $2.5 million a year to have the Texas Department of Public Safety patrol.

“Do you think they’re not doing a good job, DPS? Do they need more help?” Schechter asked Garland’s Joe Harn. “I think DPS does a good job,” Harn said when asked of how he thought DPS was doing. “During that time period, what we were addressing were the wrecks.”

Garland said during the year News 8 looked at, the city saw a 23 percent spike in accidents on the Bush Turnpike. It wrote tickets to encourage drivers to slow down. That year, one of every five tickets in Garland were written on the Turnpike.

“What we do is we respond to an area,” Harn said. “And usually when we show up, and people see us out there and we are issuing tickets, then the speed or the problem is lowered, then we move on.”

The Irving Police Department said spot checks of speeds on the Bush Turnpike show that 88 percent of the drivers go faster than 60 mph. It said it patrolled that road in an effort to bring speeds down.

The NTTA said it appreciates the additional patrols provided by some local communities and that it makes for safer roads, but that’s not how everyone sees it.

“Those are ducks sitting on a pond for some local police officer to sit out there, and just get people as they go by and raise revenue for the city,” Newton said.

County constables in North Texas are ignoring their primary warrant serving responsibilities in order to issue speeding tickets. In Dallas County, constables have issued $49 million worth of citations even though 92,000 arrest warrants await service. Dallas County Constable Mike Dupree‘s precinct issues an average of 1700 traffic citations per month. His jurisdiction has 24,000 unserved warrants.Texas law establishes that constables have all the powers of a peace officer, but their sole duty is to issue warrants. “A constable shall execute and return as provided by law each process, warrant, and precept that is directed to the constable….” (Texas Code, Section 86.021)

In the late 1990s, DeSoto passed a resolution asking the Dallas County constables to stop running speed traps in the city. Constables have flouted the city council’s wishes and continue to ticket residents. Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price told investigators with KTVT-TV that he preferred having constables issue tickets because there isn’t enough space in jail for those with a warrant out for their arrest.

“I am going to have to manage the beds I have, and if I have to manage them, then I will give the beds to the more serious offenders,” Price said.

Constable Dupree faces far more serious charges than running speed traps. As reported in the Dallas Morning News, three male deputies filed sexual harassment charges against him. A petition was filed in March seeking to remove Dupree from office.

Source: (KTVT-TV (TX), 5/10/2007)