New York’s Red Light Robin Hood Indicted

 

It will be interesting to see how his trial goes!

"The New York man known as the Red Light Robin Hood pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday after being indicted on 17 felony counts of criminal mischief for cutting the wires to red light cameras where officials shortened yellow light-duration times from five to three seconds, giving drivers less time to stop, enabling Suffolk County to cite more drivers for running red lights.

Ruth says the two second reduction in yellow-light duration at some intersections is causing more deadly accidents, but has led to millions in profit for the county and Xerox, the company that contracts the cameras.

Thirty-two million dollars in profit, to be exact.

Ruth, offering no apologies, pleaded not guilty even though it won’t be hard to prove he committed the crime."

https://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/06/new-yorks-red-lig...

how does he have anything in

common with Robin Hood?

guilty!

This is in my area. He has confessed on TV news several times and will be going to jail!

He is the only one saying that the yellow light timing was reduced. If it were true the local paper Newsday would be all over it.

In Suffolk County NY, accidents with injuries have gone up at 44% of intersections after red light cameras were installed. At the same time, accidents with injuries went down 4% at all intersections in the county.

32 million is not profit. Xerox takes a large percentage, and half the violators did not pay! So where's the profit?

dobs108 rolleyes

Trial by Jury?

Not Guilty!! Never get all Jurors to vote guilty to the robbing Gov and Xerox wires being cut.

Huh...

Wow,what an idiot!

Jury's

allbizz wrote:

Wow,what an idiot!

Do unexpected things

--
Never argue with a pig. It makes you look foolish and it anoys the hell out of the pig!

for those criticizing this fellow

The article indicated that the county decreased yellow light durations to avoid paying contractual fees to the RLC operator when not enough red light tickets were issued (the operator gets a cut of the tickets of course).

According to the article, decreasing the yellow light duration doubled the rate of fatalities and the RLCs significantly increased the number of rearend collisions. In addition, it appears that underperforming RLCs in upper-class neighborhoods were removed, rather than shortening the yellow light durations.

If these facts are true, perhaps a few criminal cases would be appropriate against the people who decided to shorten the yellow light durations, apparently sacrificing the lives of those in lower class neighborhoods in the interest of earning the city a few dollars more.

Sue

scott_dog wrote:

The article indicated that the county decreased yellow light durations to avoid paying contractual fees to the RLC operator when not enough red light tickets were issued (the operator gets a cut of the tickets of course).

According to the article, decreasing the yellow light duration doubled the rate of fatalities and the RLCs significantly increased the number of rearend collisions. In addition, it appears that underperforming RLCs in upper-class neighborhoods were removed, rather than shortening the yellow light durations.

If these facts are true, perhaps a few criminal cases would be appropriate against the people who decided to shorten the yellow light durations, apparently sacrificing the lives of those in lower class neighborhoods in the interest of earning the city a few dollars more.

Someone should be filing wrongful death suits against the county if that is the case

--
TomTom built in and Garmin Nuvi 1490T. Eastern Iowa, formerly Southern California "You can check out any time you like...but you can never leave."

Profit = Revenue - Expenses

dobs108 wrote:

32 million is not profit. Xerox takes a large percentage, and half the violators did not pay! So where's the profit?

Profit for the county and Xerox.

The revenue (minus expenses) that Xerox receives becomes Xerox profit. The revenue (minus expenses) that the County receives becomes the County's profit.

Even if it is true that half violators do not pay, there is still plenty of money going around.

County profit not guaranteed

The profit to Xerox is guaranteed by their contract with the county. The county gets what is left, if anything. The dollar amounts that illustrate this are staggering! This quote is from the Nassau And Suffolk NY Red Light Cameras thread:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/43508

dobs108 on 4/7/16 wrote:

According to Newsday (sorry no link because Newsday.com is a pay site) Suffolk County NY now has 207,000 unpaid traffic citations worth $22 million. They are offering an amnesty with reduced penalties. In the future they plan to boot and tow violators who have accumulated over $2000- in fines and penalties. Most of these are due to red light camera tickets.

Suffolk County Legislator Kate Browning called the new plan "unfair to the poor who are being hammered and just trying to keep a roof over their heads. Rich people just pay, but for hardworking people, losing their car can mean losing their livelihood."

Xerox State and Local Solutions is Suffolk's red light camera contractor. Xerox handles debt collection services for unpaid violations. Over the past three years, Suffolk has paid Xerox $24,385,000 for debt collection alone.

The red light camera program was intended to be a moneymaker but it doesn't seem so now. The payments to Xerox for debt collection may exceed revenue from fines that are actually paid, in my opinion.

dobs108 smile

So the county paid $24 million for debt collection and there are $22 million in unpaid fines over three years. Debt collection is a separate cost in addition to Xerox's red light camera contract. The figures quoted above have increased in the last two months as more violators refuse to pay.

If the county were to pass its "boot and tow" program, that would be another new expense. While boot and tow is needed, it would not be a big moneymaker. All these vehicles need to be found, and unlike New York City, most parking in Suffolk County is off-street on private property and not accessible to be booted and towed.

In April 2016, boot and tow was just a proposal, and now two months later it is Dead on Arrival in the county legislature. The number of people with over $2000- in fines and penalties is in the tens of thousands. Since there is hardly any public transit available here, after their car is taken they can't get to work. The county legislature just doesn't have the stomach to do what needs to be done if they want a red light camera program. This will encourage others to avoid paying.

The county's poor outlook for making any money plus the publicity generated by the Red Light Robin Hood may mean the end of the Red Light Camera program.

dobs108 smile