DC Inspector General Blasts City Over Bogus Camera Tickets

Not as bad? No, it is much worse than the article makes it seem.

Check out the Post article, it is more comprehensive about the widespread bogus camera tickets and inability to appeal or receive justice or fairness from the cameras.

That is what to be expected from the District of Corruption?

ATS is also the contractor for my area of Nassau County NY for speed and red light cameras. The description of the operation of the low-tech speed sensor and the necessary human evaluation is disturbing.

I drive past several speed cameras at local schools on a daily basis, confident in being below the speed limit, but now I plan to avoid them.

dobs108

When this happens, the camera operator should be fined an amazing amount of money so they're more likely to be honest next time.

Fred

A video would be pretty conclusive, but say it were film be it 35mm or digital.

1) pic of vehicle before stop line when light turned red

2) pic of vehicle proceeding through red after light turned red

3) pic of license plate

If a vehicle did not run a red light, there should be no ticket. The evidence does not vamoose upon issuance of the summons.

Speed? It has always been said if there were 4 lanes of traffic going past a speed cam, technology can pick out the speeder. I dunno about you guys, but every time I have driven through DC or MD, upon the approach of a speed cam, the entire flock of vehicles slows down to the speed limit. It would be virtually impossible to speed unless you were by yourself a 3 AM.

People like to question technology. Hey, I've transferred about 40k this year using my android. One would have thought that with that many dollars, there's a good chance the android would have gotten tired and made a mistake. Plus android is corrupt and a money grab too.

That would certainly go a LONG way in making sure it never happens again...

Go after the money already taken... Then ban them. Problem solved.

Having worked at the city for several years, let me tell you a little about the DC Inspector General. First off, they are a paper tiger in that they have no authority and no means of enforcing any of their recommendations. Secondly, they are an arm of the City Council rather than any type of enforcement or legal entity.

Their only function is to prowl through the trash and records of the executive (Mayor's Office) department and publish findings about so called wrongful actions. More often than not, their conclusions are highly suspect.

The department I was associated with was a frequent target as we handled all the computers and phone services. They would pour through the billing records and then publish the "results" of their investigations. One time, after releasing their report to the Washington Post 48 hours before sending it to the department head, the Post published the results of the IG's "Findings." They claimed the District was being horrendously over billed by Verizon based on their review of the records. Suffice it to say, the District had (at that time) almost 40,000 telephone numbers in service. Their sample was based on 100 and the extrapolated what they found to the entire 40K+ phones. The only trouble is they couldn't read a phone bill. One of the "numbers" they claimed the District was being erroneously billed for was a Verizon internal accounting code which in turn subtotaled the number of phones on one trunk group. Their claim was this "proved" the city was being over billed more than $150K per year.

After we explained to the Post the errors of the IG's audit, they quit releasing reports to the Post and started discussing their findings with the relevant agency before publishing a final report.

For this report on the PD's procedures to be accepted, they would have had to prove their methodology and findings first. The Post didn't like having to retract its story about the phone "scam."

That's exactly what an IG is in most any capacity, not just DC.