Bullshit for suckers: Tennessee Senate Votes to Authorize Photo Enforcement

TheNewspaper.com
3/18/2008

The Tennessee state Senate voted unanimously yesterday to more clearly authorize cities to deploy red light cameras and speed cameras. State Senator Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) introduced the legislation which is likely to encourage dozens more cities to deploy the devices that can add millions to municipal budgets.

TIM BURCHETT
R-Knoxville
District 7 Knox County
8220 Bennington Drive
Knoxville, TN 37909
865-693-1902

More than ten cities throughout the state, including Chattanooga, Kingsport and Knoxville installed ticket cameras before an intense behind-the-scenes lobbying effort secured a brief state authorization law last June. The one-sentence statute only specified that photo tickets must not carry license points. Burchett's bill will help municipalities avoid lawsuits by giving the state's blessing to existing photo ticket procedures. The single pro-motorist provision that had been part of the first draft of Burchett's bill would have required cities to send citations by certified mail to ensure that the notice was properly received. An amendment deleted that requirement, noting that cities would lose $3.06 for each ticket if the provision had survived. The Senate-passed version of the bill includes a provision that delays the imposition of unlimited late fees until 30 days after a second notice is sent by regular mail.

The measure now heads to the state House for consideration. A copy of the bill is found in a 55k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Senate Bill 3258, Tennessee General Assembly, 3/17/2008

Tennessee Code 55-8-110 - Traffic-control signals — Inoperative signals with vehicle detection devices for motorcycles — Right of way at signals inoperative due to mechanical failure or accident. — Citations based on surveillance cameras. (d) A traffic citation that is based solely on evidence obtained from a surveillance camera that has been installed to enforce or monitor traffic violations shall be for a nonmoving traffic violation.

Amendment No. 1 to SB3258 Tracy - Signature of Sponsor AMEND Senate Bill No. 3258 House Bill No. 3069*

By deleting all of the language after the enacting clause and by substituting instead the following:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 55, Chapter 8, Part 1, is amended by adding a new section thereto, as follows:

Section 55-8-198.

(a) A traffic citation that is based solely upon evidence obtained from a surveillance camera that has been installed to enforce or monitor traffic violations shall be considered a nonmoving traffic violation.

(b) An employee of the applicable law enforcement office shall review video evidence from a traffic light signal monitoring system and make a determination as to whether a violation has occurred. If a determination is made that a violation has occurred, a notice of violation or a citation shall be sent by first class mail to the registered owner of the vehicle that was captured by the traffic light signal monitoring system. A notice of violation or citation shall allow for payment of such traffic violation or citation within thirty (30) days of the mailing of such notice. No additional penalty or other costs shall be assessed for non-payment of a traffic violation or citation that is based solely on evidence obtained from a surveillance camera installed to enforce or monitor traffic violations, unless a second notice is sent by first class mail to the registered owner of the motor vehicle and such second notice provides for an additional thirty (30) days for payment of such violation or citation.

(c) The following vehicles are exempt from receiving a notice of violation:

(1) Emergency vehicles with active emergency lights;

(2) Vehicles moving through the intersection to avoid or clear the way for a marked emergency vehicle;

(3) Vehicles under police escort; and

(4) Vehicles in a funeral procession.

(d)

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, the registered owner of the motor vehicle shall be responsible for payment of any notice of violation or citation issued as the result of a traffic light monitoring system.

(2) An owner of a vehicle shall not be responsible for the violation if, on or before the designated court date, such owner furnishes the court an affidavit stating the name and address of the person or entity that leased, rented or otherwise had care, custody or control of the motor vehicle at the time of the violation.

(3) If a motor vehicle or its plates were stolen at the time of the alleged violation, the registered owner must provide an affidavit denying such owner was an operator and provide a certified copy of the police report reflecting such theft.

(4) An affidavit alleging theft of a motor vehicle or its plates must be provided by the registered owner of a vehicle receiving a notice of violation within thirty (30) days of the mailing date of the notice of violation.

SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 55-8-110, is amended by deleting subsection (d) in its entirety.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2008, the public welfare requiring it.

Bullshit.

Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure

Rule 4.03. Summons; Return — (1) The person serving the summons shall promptly make proof of service to the court and shall identify the person served and shall describe the manner of service. If a summons is not served within 90 days after its issuance, it shall be returned stating the reasons for failure to serve. The plaintiff may obtain new summonses from time to time, as provided in Rule 3, if any prior summons has been returned unserved or if any prior summons has not been served within 90 days of issuance.

(2)When process is served by mail, the original summons, endorsed as below; an affidavit of the person making service setting forth the person's compliance with the requirements of this rule; and, the return receipt shall be sent to and filed by the clerk. The person making service shall endorse over his or her signature on the original summons the date of mailing a certified copy of the summons and a copy of the complaint to the defendant and the date of receipt of return receipt from the defendant. If the return receipt is signed by the defendant, or by person designated by Rule 4.04 or by statute, service on the defendant shall be complete. If not, service by mail may be attempted again or other methods authorized by these rules or by statute may be used.

Knoxville Code, Section 8-1, Issuance of process - The city judge shall issue process on the complaint. He shall try no case until process has been regularly sued out, served and returned.

Tennessee: Refunds for Photo Tickets on Short Yellow

TheNewspaper.com
3/13/2008

Chattanooga, Tennessee Judge refunds 176 red light camera tickets issued at illegally short yellow light.

The city of Chattanooga, Tennessee will refund $8800 in red light cameras tickets issued to motorists trapped by an illegally short yellow time. Municipal Court Judge Russell Bean on Monday dismissed charges against 176 vehicle owners cited by an automated ticketing machine located at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Pine Street.

Last month, a motorist challenged his citation by insisting that the yellow light was too short and only remained lit for 3.0 seconds before changing to red and activating the camera. LaserCraft, the private vendor that runs the camera program in return for a cut of the profits, provided the judge with a computer database that asserted the yellow was 3.8 seconds at that location. Bean gave the motorist the benefit of the doubt and watched the video of the alleged violation while counting how long the light stayed yellow.

"It didn't seem to me that it was at four (seconds) because it would change right at three," Bean told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Bean then personally checked the intersection in question was timed at three seconds while other nearby locations had about four seconds of yellow warning. City traffic engineer John Van Winkle told Bean that "a mix up with the turn arrow" was responsible and that the bare minimum for the light should be 3.9 seconds. Judge Bean ordered 176 of the tickets issued within the first 0.9 seconds after the light turned red canceled.

Short yellow times are vital to ensuring the steady flow of traffic citations for vendors like LaserCraft. Confidential documents obtained in a 2001 court trial proved that the city of San Diego, California and its red light camera vendor, now ACS, only installed red light cameras at intersections with high volumes and "Amber (yellow) phase less than 4 seconds."

Short yellows trap drivers in what is known as a "dilemma zone" where there is neither time to stop safely -- without slamming the brakes and risking a rear-end collision -- nor to proceed through the intersection before it changes to red. Red light cameras capitalize on this, with four out of every five tickets issued before the light has been red for a full second, according to a report by the California State Auditor. This suggests that most citations are issued to those surprised by a quick-changing signal light.

In 2002, a Baltimore, Maryland judge caught the city trapping motorists at signals with illegally short yellow lights. Read court memo

Source: Quick light leads to refunds for 176 drivers, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 3/13/2008

Report: Red Light Cameras Increase Injuries and Insurance Rates

An analysis published last week in the journal of the Florida Public Health Association argues that, contrary to common assumptions, the use of red light cameras leads to increases in insurance rates and injury accidents. Researchers Barbara Langland-Orban, Etienne E. Pracht and John T. Large closely examined the most often cited studies of red light camera use and concluded that not all of them were equally reliable.

"All research studies are susceptible to design flaws, especially observational (i.e. non-experimental) studies," the report stated. "Some of the major studies concluding reductions in red light running have exhibited such design flaws."

The most proper way to study the issue would be to gather accident data at intersections where cameras are actively ticketing over a set period (after) and compare them with accident records for an equal period when the devices were not installed (before). Control intersection data can then be used to better isolate the effects of camera use. Professor Orban and her colleagues found that the studies usually cited by photo enforcement proponents did not follow this basic procedure.

For example, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) study of accident reductions in Oxnard, California did not actually examine accidents at camera intersections. Instead, it compared citywide crash rates between intersections with signals and intersections without signals. Likewise, the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) 2005 study of cameras did not compare the accident rate before cameras were installed to the rate afterward. Instead, it estimated expected crashes in the after period by comparing intersections with cameras to intersections without.

FHWA also selectively excluded certain cities from its analysis, including Greensboro, North Carolina and cities in Virginia, which experienced a significant increase in injuries and accidents according to other studies. The report also selectively excluded the reporting of certain data to ensure independent researchers would be unable to challenge or verify the study's conclusion. The federal agency went to far in its secrecy as to refuse a Freedom of Information Act request for a set of its results listed by location. The National Motorists Association had made the request intending to verify the particular conditions at the intersections studied.

The researchers suggested that the IIHS and FHWA studies were tainted by financial conflicts of interest. The insurance industry directly funds IIHS. And, although the FHWA study was sponsored by the US Department of Transportation, study co-director Bhagwant Persaud has accepted significant payment from IIHS for his past research. Orban explained that the insurance industry not only makes money from traffic tickets that carry license demerit points, but it also makes greater profit when the number of accidents increases.

"Higher crash rates suggest higher risk; justifying higher premiums and profits," the report stated. "Due to the pricing methods used, automobile insurers do not have a financial incentive to lower crash rates or perceptions of risk."

The report cites Florida data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners which shows that insurance profits skyrocketed from 2000 to 2004 -- from $8.7 billion to $14 billion. It did so by paying out 73 cents in claims for every dollar collected in premiums in 2000. This number dropped to 61 cents on the dollar in 2004. During this period, the accident rate remained static and the number of traffic tickets issued increased.

Orban found the independent VDOT, Ontario and Burkey-Obeng studies (view studies) followed proper scientific methods and were fully open in sharing the data upon which the conclusions were based. These studies concluded that red light cameras caused an increase in injuries and overall accidents.

"Cities and counties should... pursue engineering improvements to enhance intersection safety for all drivers and passengers," Orban's report concluded. "Proven engineering practices and countermeasures can reduce crashes and injuries due to red light running, as well as other causes of intersection crashes."

Read the full text of the report in an 80k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Red Light Running Cameras: Would Crashes, Injuries and Automobile Insurance Rates Increase, Florida Public Health Review, 3/7/2008

Teddy Bears, Candy, and Urination at Accused Red Light Shooter Hearing

WVLT TV

KNOXVILLE, TENN - Teddy bears and candy bars are not a pair of things you typically what you would associate with a court of law.

But they became as present as a gavel and black robe on Thursday morning.

Clifford Clark stands accused of shooting out a red light camera with a high powered rifle.

As he walked into on Thursday, he made a beeline for some members of the media, and handed them each a teddy bear.

The bear’s were all wearing shirts that read “Save the Cliff.”

Clark also planned to hand out candy bars, until an officer told him food was not allowed in courtroom.

When the hearing finally got started, the gift bearer wound up representing himself.

"It was an adrenaline rush,” he said, “I was scared nervous and I enjoyed it. I also sky dive and fly acrobatics, but I did like that adrenaline."

During his hearing, Clark cross examined one of the witnesses.

“Point out the damage, for the court, to this camera," he asked.

"You can't on that camera picture," replied the witness.

“Why not,” asked Clark?

"It's a poor quality picture," said the witness.

“Well I think we have a poor quality witness,” Clark replied.

Even though the case has now been bound to the grand jury on two felony counts, Clark had love for everyone in the courtroom.

"I actually like the prosecutor, there are very few people that I've met in this episode that I didn't like,” he said. “Even though she was somewhat combative and somewhat insulting, I thought she was a great lady, and I thought the judge was a wonderful person."

Clark said he has degrees and graduate work in engineering, psychology and nursing.

Even with the potential for prison time if convicted, he claims to not be too worried.

"If by some miscarriage of justice I am convicted of anything, I'll be an exceptionally good criminal,” he laughed, before saying just kidding. “I'm probably going to be the most educated criminal in prison."

When asked after court if he shot the camera, Clark said no.

He did however say he would admit to urinating in public, a misdemeanor which he claims is the reason he stopped in the area where the shots supposedly came from.

Clark was also unsure if he would continue to represent himself if the grand jury indicts him, but Judge Andrew Jackson did tell him he did a good job representing himself during the hearing.

Feb 7, 2008

Accused red light camera shooter speaks out

By Ann Keil
WATE 6 News

KNOXVILLE, TENN - Clifford Clark, the man accused of shooting a red light camera in November, says he's innocent.

Clark says he remembers the night of November 24-25 very clearly.

"I had come back from middle Tennessee and I had been shooting... I had dinner with a group of people downtown, pulled off to use the restroom, and got nailed," he says.

Clark says he thought he was getting pulled over for urinating in public, but instead he was arrested for shooting a red light camera

Knoxville police say Clark shot the camera at Broadway and I-640 around 2 a.m. November 25.

Investigators say hours earlier that same camera caught Clark running a red light.

"I was surprised that I was charged and also surprised people presumed guilt," Clark says.

He says he would have had nothing to gain from what he's accused of and no evidence that says he did it. "There isn't any discharging of firearms on any of the police video and no witnesses have come forward saying they saw anything."

Clark accuses Knoxville police of tampering with evidence after they found a rifle in his car.

He says he had been shooting paper targets in the woods earlier that day.

"All you have to do is make an example out of one person and maybe it was me," Clark says.

Clark admits he is now against the use of red light cameras but only became aware of the controversy around them after the incident.

"I think the public is really tired of the cameras, and they want someone to rise up and strike the cameras down, and I've filled that role vicariously for them, but they're going to be disappointed when I'm found not guilty," says Clark.

He says he's never received a red light camera ticket to this day.

His hearing is set for next week.

Clark now faces felony vandalism and reckless endangerment charges.

The police report says officers heard gunshots and when they headed towards the area to investigate, they saw a van fleeing the area.

They made a traffic stop and Cliff Clark was inside.

He was arrested after they found a hunting rifle in his van.

The red light camera had been shot three times.

6 News contacted the Knoxville police tonight.

When we asked about the incident and the tampering claim, they could not comment because the investigation is ongoing.

Feb 1, 2008

Join the discussion

Williams vs Redflex and City of Knoxville Municipal Corp - Class action to refund all robocop tickets and pay for the increase in crashes

Red light shooting suspect represents self against Redflex robocop

By Brian Holt, Photographer
By Robin Murdoch, Reporter WBIR TV, 2/7/2008

Watch this video

A Knoxville man accused of shooting out a red light camera represented himself in court on Thursday.

The judge warned him it was unusual considering the seriousness of the charges. Clifford Clark is charged with vandalism and reckless endangerment.

"It was an adrenaline rush--scared, nervous-- I enjoyed it," Clark said of representing himself. "I sky dive, fly aerobatics, so I did like the adrenaline."

Clark went from computer engineer to his very own counsel on Thursday. He's accused of shooting out the red light camera near Broadway and I-640 in late November.

Clark insists police nabbed the wrong man.

"Officer, did you witness me or anyone else shooting at the traffic camera?" Clark asked the witness.

"No, sir," said Knoxville Police Officer Jason Keck.

"Thank you. Your honor, may I make a motion for dismissal please?" Clark responded.

Two Knoxville police officers did, however, testify that they heard several shots in that area, then saw Clark driving out of the Pittman Automotive parking lot and pulled him over.

The officers said they found a rifle and a box of bullets with four missing inside his minivan.

"Point out the damage to the camera to the court please," Clark asked the witness.

"You can't on the picture," Officer James Cox replied.

"Why not?" asked Clark.

"Because you have a poor quality picture," the officer replied.

"I think we have a poor quality witness," Clark said.

The judge eventually took a recess so everyone connected to the case could watch a video Clark handed out to the press last week.

Clark says the police video shows the officers tampering with evidence, but the court wasn't convinced.

A grand jury will now decide whether the accused red light shooter will stand trial.

That's when Clark will decide if he'll play lawyer again.

"I will consult with an attorney, but what I will need to do is make a few sky dives between now and then, to get the adrenaline worked out, then decide whether to hire an attorney."

Clark says he is guilty of urinating in public, which is why police found him where they did. He also says he has never received a ticket for running that particular red light.

Before Thursday's hearing, Clark gave teddy bears that said, "Save the Cliff" to all the reporters.

Clark tried to give one to the assistant district attorney general handling the case, but she gave it back.

Join the discussion

Williams vs Redflex and City of Knoxville Municipal Corp - Class action to refund all robocop tickets and pay for the increase in crashes

Treasonous LaFollette TN officials secretly accept bribes for illegal Redflex redlight cameras, speed cameras?

LaFollette city officials are considering putting red light cameras and speed cameras into use.

Along Jacksboro Pike, a main thoroughfare in LaFollette, law enforcement officials say they have a big problem with drivers not obeying the rules of the road, including speeding and running red lights.

Officer John Baker issues roughly 25 speeding tickets and 12 red light citations a month. "Just this morning, we had a woman run a red light and cause an accident in the middle of town."

City administrator David Young says, "We think from a safety stand point, it's going to be a really good thing for the city of LaFollette."

Violators would be fined around $50 but the points wouldn't count against a driver's license.

"The revenue is a side effect," Young says. "We're looking at the safety involved that will no only provide revenue, but hopefully slow down traffic."

LaFollette Police Chief Ben Baird says the cameras would be an added tool for his department. "We can't devote time setting cars at red lights so this should help the level of enforcement we're not able to provide."

The company called Red Flex would decide where speed or red light cameras should be placed.

But for now, speed cameras and red light cameras are just possibilities in talks between LaFollette officials. The issue will be reviewed at the city council meeting in February.

In some other East Tennessee cities, Morristown officials say their red light cameras should be up and running in the next few months.

In Oak Ridge, officials are still weighing the idea of putting cameras up at their busiest intersections.

And Knoxville currently has 15 red light cameras in use. Police say since the first one was installed in 2006, crashes have been reduced by 40 percent.

Jan 23, 2008

Williams vs Redflex and City of Knoxville Municipal Corp - Class action to refund all robocop tickets and pay for the increase in crashes

Treasonous Oak Ridge TN officials secretly accept bribes for illegal Redflex redlight cameras, speed cameras?

Another East Tennessee city is considering red light cameras. This time, it's Oak Ridge.

Red light cameras are relatively new to East Tennessee.

The city of Knoxville put up its first camera in April 2006.

Today, Knoxville has 15 red light cameras at intersections across the city.

Oak Ridge city manager Jim O'Conner says if the city goes ahead with putting up the cameras, they won't be used just to make money.

O'Conner says a report produced by the Tennessee Municipal League shows there's a reduction in accidents when the cameras are installed.

Many Oak Ridge drivers agree the cameras will do more good than harm.

"I think it is a good idea to keep us more aware of what we are doing wrong and to make people drive safer," says Oak Ridge resident Mary Stanley.

O'Conner says if the cameras are installed, it will be some time before the lenses are focused on drivers.

The city has to find a company to work with first and get approval from city council.

O'Conner also says the cameras could catch more than just drivers barreling through red lights. They could also be used to see the speed of traffic.

Dec 10, 2007

Williams vs Redflex and City of Knoxville Municipal Corp - Class action to refund all robocop tickets and pay for the increase in crashes

Treasonous Morristown TN officials secretly accept bribes for illegal Redflex redlight cameras, speed cameras?

A growing number of East Tennessee cities are considering installing red light cameras at busy intersections and Morristown has joined the list.

Morristown's red light camera plan is expected to happen this spring.

Meanwhile, Knoxville has 15 red light cameras in use.

And Officials in Oak Ridge and LaFollette are considering adding cameras at some of their intersections.

In Morristown, red light cameras are expected to be installed at five intersections.

The cameras will be the same type in use in Knoxville.

Officials say the amount of money the cameras would generate for Morristown depends on where the cameras are put into use. They also say there will be no cost to taxpayers.

However, officials say the cameras would be used more to help improve safety on the roads than to collect money.

They hope to reduce crashes at dangerous intersections around the city.

Jan 24, 2008

Williams vs Redflex and City of Knoxville Municipal Corp - Class action to refund all robocop tickets and pay for the increase in crashes

George Korda loves Redflex

George Korda began his communications career as a military journalist. From 1972 to 1974 he was assigned to The School Brigade at Ft. Benning, GA., where he reported on training activities of U.S. Army Rangers, airborne infantry, the U.S. Army Infantry School and other unit functions.

In 1974 he was assigned to the Chief of Public Affairs, U.S. Army, Europe in Heidelberg, Germany. He traveled throughout Europe writing for Stars & Stripes, Army Times, and numerous other military and civilian publications, including the Associated Press. He was also a radio correspondent for Armed Forces Network, Europe.

In 1977 Korda left the military and became a reporter for Today newspaper (now called Florida Today) in Brevard County, Florida. During his three years with the newspaper, which serves east central Florida, he covered such stories as the 1980 mass refugee boatlift exodus from Cuba, the first submarine launch of a Trident nuclear missile, and many stories related to America’s space program.

In 1981, Korda moved to Tennessee to become Director of Information for the State Department of Commerce and Insurance, which included the state fire marshal’s office and division of regulatory boards. He was frequently called on by the governor’s press secretary to act as spokesman during state government emergencies. These included prison shootings and disturbances, failures of financial institutions, natural disasters, criminal investigations and law enforcement operations.

In 1984, Korda served as press secretary for the Victor Ashe for U.S. Senate campaign. From 1984 -1987 he was with Dye, Van Mol & Lawrence Public Relations in Nashville, specializing in media relations. In 1987 he moved to Knoxville to become Director of Information and press secretary for Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe.

In 1992 he left the mayor’s office to become director of corporate communications for Regal Corporation. From March, 1996 to December, 2003, Korda was with The Ingram Group, a statewide public affairs firm. In January, 2003, he formed Korda Communications, his own public relations and communications consulting firm based in Knoxville.

Korda is political analyst for WATE-TV, Knoxville’s ABC-TV affiliate. He regularly guests on WATE’s public affairs program, “Tennessee This Week.” Korda hosts “State Your Case,” which airs noon – 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon.. He appears monthly on “Inside Politics” on WNOX’s “Hallerin Hill Show.” He writes a weekly column for Knoxnews.com, the Knoxville News-Sentinel’s website.

Pirate News TV versus George Korda, WNOX, KPD and their treasonous foreign military invasion by Redflex robocops

Lying used car salesmen dispute man's claim about robot car shut-off device

By Don Dare, WATE TV

KNOXVILLE TENN. -- If you buy a used car at some East Tennessee dealers, you'd better make payments on time or a device inside could shut off the engine. And it's perfectly legal.

The On Time device is part of an electronic payment protection system. It's supposed to be used if a customer falls behind in making payments.

But a Knoxville man says a car he bought has been disabled four times although his payments haven't been late.

However, representatives with the company that sells the device say that couldn't have happened.

There's an On Time device under the dashboard of Joyce Proctor's 1994 Chevy Lumina. "It's green right now but it turns red just before they shut it off." If that happens, "You can't drive the car. It won't steer. It won't do nothing."

Bill Hendrickson bought the car last March for his ex-wife, Joyce. She drives him around because his health is bad.

"She's scared to death when she goes down the highway, when she visits her mother in Townsend. It's shut off a couple of times," Bill says.

The car came from Frontier Motors at 8421 Asheville Highway, a buy here - pay here lot.

Bill's kept receipts from the time he purchased the car. "My payments are always a week to two weeks early. I've never missed one."

Despite that, Joyce says the car was disabled at home and on the highway. "It happened this past month. It was scary."

"How many times has the tracking device shut your car off on the roadway?" 6 On Your Side asks. "Twice," Joyce says. "I don't want to die. I sure don't want to die. Every time I get in this car, I get scared."

She showed 6 On Your Side a series of numbers that's a code for the On Time device. It has to be punched in every month.

"Every time you make a payment, it's a different code, different numbers on each code," Joyce explains.

6 On Your side went to Frontier Motors and asked Denise Arthur, who filled out Bill Hendrickson's paperwork, about the car.

Arthur said an On Time device "goes on all the vehicles. It's to shut the car down if people don't make their payments."

6 On Your Side told Arthur what Bill and Joyce said about the car being disabled despite making the payments. "First, you can turn that off," she said, pointing to the 6 On Your Side camera.

Then Joyce called Frontier Motors to follow up. "She gave me seven or eight different codes to put into it."

Bill's spent over $1,000 repairing the car's electrical system. He showed 6 On Your Side receipts for a battery, alternator and starter. Apparently, the On Time device depends on a properly tuned electrical system.

"These little devices can shut off if the battery is bad on your car, if your starter goes out on your car, if your alternator is bad on your car," Arthur explains.

Bill wasn't happy to hear the explanation. "I think the whole thing is bull. I've never seen a set up like that. You can't be trusted and my payments are made early, I picked the wrong company."

Despite his displeasure, Bill gave his consent for the system when he signed the sales agreement at Frontier Motors.

6 On Your Side spoke with On Time Wednesday. The company says its device is a starter interrupt system that prevents a car from being turned on only if a payment isn't made or the customer has gone beyond the grace period.

On Time claims the device will not turn off the car while it's running.

The company says whatever happened to Bill Hendrickson's car had nothing to do with its system.

If you have a consumer question or problem, call the 6 On Your Side hotline at (865)-633-5974.

Dec 5, 2007

DARPA.MIL's Control Freak Technology

Kurt Nimmo
TruthNews

According to Wired.com, the Pentagon is "about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information about a person's life, index all the information and make it searchable. What national security experts and civil libertarians want to know is, why would the Defense Department want to do such a thing?"

Once again, "security experts and civil libertarians" fail to understand the authoritarian, psychopathic mind. Our rulers do these sort of things because they are the ultimate control freaks, paranoid and suspicious of the average person - or rather what the average person may do in order to get rid of the controllers, the parasites, who are compelled to spend billions of dollars on such projects, that is to say billions fleeced off the people they want to monitor and control. As usual, the excuse is they have to protect us from the terrorists, never mind they created the terrorists, too.

"The embryonic LifeLog program would dump everything an individual does into a giant database: every e-mail sent or received, every picture taken, every Web page surfed, every phone call made, every TV show watched, every magazine read," Wired continues. "All of this - and more - would combine with information gleaned from a variety of sources: a GPS transmitter to keep tabs on where that person went, audio-visual sensors to capture what he or she sees or says, and biomedical monitors to keep track of the individual's health."

In fact, a large part of this is already in place, thanks to the NSA's vacuum cleaner approach to searching for "al-Qaeda phone calls," (AllCIAduh) cataloguing millions of phone calls each and every day, reading email, snooping internet destinations with the help of the telecoms. As for GPS, you have one in your cell phone, as well as a way for the snoops to listen in on what you say, even when you think the phone is switched off.

If the government had its way - and it may very well in a few years, thanks to the bovine nature of the average American ? you will be chipped or at minimum have an RFID in your wallet or purse, thus they will be track where you go and when.

This gigantic amalgamation of personal information could then be used to "trace the 'threads' of an individual's life," to see exactly how a relationship or events developed, according to a briefing from the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, LifeLog's sponsor.

Someone with access to the database could "retrieve a specific thread of past transactions, or recall an experience from a few seconds ago or from many years earlier - by using a search-engine interface."

For instance, it could be determined if you harbor "discontent" with the government, in other words if you're with al-Qaeda.

On the surface, the project seems like the latest in a long line of DARPA's "blue sky" research efforts, most of which never make it out of the lab. But DARPA is currently asking businesses and universities for research proposals to begin moving LifeLog forward. And some people, such as Steven Aftergood, a defense analyst with the Federation of American Scientists, are worried.

With its controversial Total Information Awareness database project, DARPA already is planning to track all of an individual's "transactional data" - like what we buy and who gets our e-mail.

While the parameters of the project have not yet been determined, Aftergood said he believes LifeLog could go far beyond TIA's scope, adding physical information (like how we feel) and media data (like what we read) to this transactional data.

"LifeLog has the potential to become something like 'TIA cubed,'" he said.

No doubt, the pointy-heads in the Pentagon are particularly interested in this "how we feel" aspect of the program. Not even Orwell was able to imagine such a scary control device.

You see an image of our commander-guy on television or the web, your biomedical implant registers an elevated level or disgust, and the thought police are dispatched in SWAT fashion. It's off to the re-education camp for you.

Of course, that's really "blue sky" stuff at this point. Instead, for the moment, we'll have to settle for DARPA tracking us on the internet, thanks to technology under development at Microsoft.

In the private sector, a number of LifeLog-like efforts already are underway to digitally archive one's life - to create a "surrogate memory," as minicomputer pioneer Gordon Bell calls it.

Bell, now with Microsoft, scans all his letters and memos, records his conversations, saves all the Web pages he's visited and e-mails he's received and puts them into an electronic storehouse dubbed MyLifeBits.

DARPA's LifeLog would take this concept several steps further by tracking where people go and what they see.

Of course, if you know the government is tracking where you go, chances are you may not go there. And that's why DARPA is spending your hard-earned tax money on technology you can't get around, just in case you're with al-Qaeda or a Ron Paul supporter.

That makes the project similar to the work of University of Toronto professor Steve Mann. Since his teen years in the 1970s, Mann, a self-styled "cyborg," has worn a camera and an array of sensors to record his existence. He claims he's convinced 20 to 30 of his current and former students to do the same. It's all part of an experiment into "existential technology" and "the metaphysics of free will."

DARPA isn't quite so philosophical about LifeLog. But the agency does see some potential battlefield uses for the program.

Indeed, military types are not normally interested in all that philosophical stuff, as they are too busy finding and eliminating enemies. DARPA concentrates on the battlefield and the battlefield is right here on Main Street. DARPA does somersaults to fit LifeLog into a traditional military context but it fails and fails miserably. Obviously, this system is for us, the commoners, and the real enemies of power.

John Pike, director of defense think tank GlobalSecurity.org, said he finds the explanations "hard to believe."

"It looks like an outgrowth of Total Information Awareness and other DARPA homeland security surveillance programs," he added in an e-mail.

Sure, LifeLog could be used to train robotic assistants. But it also could become a way to profile suspected terrorists, said Cory Doctorow, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In other words, Osama bin Laden's agent takes a walk around the block at 10 each morning, buys a bagel and a newspaper at the corner store and then calls his mother. You do the same things - so maybe you're an al Qaeda member, too! (AllCIAduh)

Bingo! And as we know, al-Qaeda now encompasses at lot of behavior, as even garden variety criminals are considered terrorists. But the run-of-the-mill pot smoker or bad check writer pales in comparison to those who are walking around experiencing "discontent" with the government. Obviously, a bad check writer will have at best minimal influence on the government while an al-Qaeda terrorist in a 9/11 truth t-shirt is most certainly a direct challenge and threat to the guys in charge, and that's why DARPA was put on the case.

"The more that an individual's characteristic behavior patterns - 'routines, relationships and habits' - can be represented in digital form, the easier it would become to distinguish among different individuals, or to monitor one," Aftergood, the Federation of American Scientists analyst, wrote in an e-mail.

In its LifeLog report, DARPA makes some nods to privacy protection, like when it suggests that "properly anonymized access to LifeLog data might support medical research and the early detection of an emerging epidemic."

But before these grand plans get underway, LifeLog will start small. Right now, DARPA is asking industry and academics to submit proposals for 18-month research efforts, with a possible 24-month extension. (DARPA is not sure yet how much money it will sink into the program.)

Not that money is an object when the American tax payer is picking up the tab.

Like a game show, winning this DARPA prize eventually will earn the lucky scientists a trip for three to Washington, D.C. Except on this excursion, every participating scientist's e-mail to the travel agent, every padded bar bill and every mad lunge for a cab will be monitored, categorized and later dissected.

And if the scientists are not extra careful, they may end up dead or missing, like not shortage microbiologists, as secret program like to clean up and stragglers who may cause embarrassment or Nuremberg-like trials down the road.

December 12, 2007

Police State Cyborgs spy and ticket motorists by mail - Goon squads staring at banks of TV monitors spy on all motorist slaves in order to steal money from them. How to beat the death squads in court.

DARPA.MIL's Mobile Control Freak Technology Targeting Iraqis for Death

Robert Parry
Consortium News
December 13, 2007

U.S. forces in Iraq soon will be equipped with high-tech equipment that will let them process an Iraqi’s biometric data in minutes and help American soldiers decide whether they should execute the person or not, according to its inventor.

“A war fighter needs to know one of three things: Do I let him go? Keep him? Or shoot him on the spot?” Pentagon weapons designer Anh Duong told the Washington Post for a feature on how this 47-year-old former Vietnamese refugee and mother of four rose to become a top U.S. bomb-maker.

Though Duong is best known for designing high-explosives used to destroy hardened targets, she also supervised the Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities project, known as a “lab in a box” for analyzing biometric data, such as iris scans and fingerprints, that have been collected on more than one million Iraqis.

The labs – collapsible, 20-by-20-foot units each with a generator and a satellite link to a biometric data base in West Virginia – will let U.S. forces cross-check data in the field against information collected previously that can be used to identify insurgents. These labs are expected to be deployed across Iraq in early 2008.

Duong said the next step will be to shrink the lab to the size of a “backpack” so soldiers who encounter a suspect “could find out within minutes” if he’s on a terrorist watch list and should be killed.

Duong justified this biometric-data program as a humanitarian way of singling out “bad guys” for elimination while sparing innocent civilians.

“I don’t want My Lai in Iraq,” Duong said. “The biggest difficulty in the global war on terror – just like in Vietnam – is to know who the bad guys are. How do we make sure we don’t kill innocents?”

In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military units already are operating under loose rules of engagement that allow them to kill individuals who are identified as suspected terrorists or who show the slightest evidence of being insurgents. American forces also have rounded up tens of thousands of Iraqi military-age males, or MAMs, for detention.

During a summer 2007 trip to Iraq, Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was briefed on U.S. plans to expand the number of Iraqis in American detention by the end of 2008.

“The detainees have risen to over 18,000 and are projected to hit 30,000 (by the U.S. command) by the end of the year and 50,000 by the end of 2008,” Cordesman wrote in his trip report.

The sweeps have enabled the U.S. military to collect biometric data for future use if and when the Iraqis are released back into the general population.

Test Tube

In effect, the Bush administration is transforming Iraq into a test tube for modern techniques of repression, which already include use of night-vision optics on drone aircraft, heat resonance imaging, and firepower that is both deadly and precise.

The new techniques represent a modernization of tactics used in other counterinsurgencies, such as in Vietnam in the 1960s and in Central America in the 1980s.

In Vietnam, U.S. forces planted sensors along infiltration routes for targeting bombing runs against North Vietnamese troops. In Guatemala, security forces were equipped with early laptop computers for use in identifying suspected subversives who would be dragged off buses and summarily executed.

Now, modern technologies are updating these strategies for the 21st century’s “war on terror.”

The U.S. news media mostly has reacted to these developments with gee-whiz enthusiasm, like the Post story about Duong, which breezily depicts her complicated life as a devoted mom whose personal history as a Vietnamese refugee led her to a career developing sophisticated weapons for the U.S. government.

The Post feature article expressed no alarm and no criticism of Duong’s comment about shooting Iraqi suspects “on the spot.” [Washington Post, Dec. 1, 2007]

Similarly, U.S. newspapers have consigned stories about U.S. troops engaging in extrajudicial killings of suspects mostly to pages deep inside the newspapers or have covered the news sympathetically. While some harsh criticism has fallen on trigger-happy Blackwater “security contractors,” U.S. troops have been given largely a free pass.

For instance, no furor arose this fall when the U.S. military, in effect, endorsed claims by members of elite Army sniper units that they have been granted broad discretion in killing any Iraqi who crosses the path of their rifle scopes.

On Nov. 8, a U.S. military jury at Camp Liberty in Iraq acquitted the leader of an Army sniper team in the killings of three Iraqi men south of Baghdad during the early days of the troop “surge” this year.

Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley was found not guilty of murder, though he was convicted of lesser charges that he had planted an AK-47 rifle on one of the dead men and had shown disrespect to a superior officer.

In an e-mail interview with the New York Times, Hensley complained that he should not have even faced a court martial because he was following guidance from two superior officers who wanted him to boost the unit’s kill count.

“Every last man we killed was a confirmed terrorist,” Hensley wrote. “We were praised when bad guys died. We were upbraided when bad guys did not die.” [NYT, Nov. 9, 2007]

Asymmetric Warfare

The case of Army sniper Jorge G. Sandoval Jr., who served under Hensley, also revealed a classified program in which the Pentagon’s Asymmetric Warfare Group encouraged U.S. military snipers in Iraq to drop “bait” – such as electrical cords and ammunition – and then shoot Iraqis who pick up the items, according to evidence in the Sandoval case. [Washington Post, Sept. 24, 2007]

(Like Hensley, Sandoval was acquitted of murder but convicted of a lesser charge, the planting of copper wire on one of the slain Iraqis to make it look as if the dead man were involved in making explosive devices.)

Another case of a targeted killing of a suspected insurgent surfaced at a military court hearing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in mid-September. Two U.S. Special Forces soldiers took part in the execution of an Afghani who was suspected of heading an insurgent group.

As described at the hearing, Staffel and Anderson were leading a team of Afghan soldiers when an informant told them where a suspected insurgent leader was hiding. The U.S.-led contingent found a man believed to be Nawab Buntangyar walking outside his compound near the village of Hasan Kheyl.

While the Americans kept their distance out of fear the suspect might be wearing a suicide vest, the man was questioned about his name and the Americans checked his description against a list from the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan, known as “the kill-or-capture list.”

Concluding that the man was insurgent leader Nawab Buntangyar, Staffel gave the order to shoot, and Anderson – from a distance of about 100 yards away – fired a bullet through the man’s head, killing him instantly.

The soldiers viewed the killing as “a textbook example of a classified mission completed in accordance with the American rules of engagement,” the International Herald Tribune reported. “The men said such rules allowed them to kill Buntangyar, whom the American military had designated a terrorist cell leader, once they positively identified him.” [IHT, Sept. 17, 2007]

According to evidence at the Fort Bragg proceedings, an earlier Army investigation had cleared the two soldiers because they had been operating under “rules of engagement” that empowered them to kill individuals who have been designated “enemy combatants,” even if the targets were unarmed and presented no visible threat.

In effect, Duong’s mobile labs would streamline the process for identifying suspected insurgents like Buntangyar.

Rather than relying on physical descriptions, U.S. forces could scan a suspect’s eyes or check his fingerprints — and instantaneously cross-check it with data stored in West Virginia — before deciding, in Duong’s words, “Do I let him go? Keep him? Or shoot him on the spot?”

See also:

"Finding the Russian scientists may be a problem being that Russia does not have a Social Security System, as here in America, that allows us to MONITOR, TRACK DOWN and CAPTURE an American citizen." - General Colin Powell, chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff at Pentagon, US Secretary of State, Butcher of Bagdad, Fox News, 06/17/01

Prisoners to be chipped like dogs, tracked by satellites

LONDON - Hi-tech 'satellite' tagging planned in order to create more space in jails. Civil rights groups and probation officers furious at 'degrading' scheme.

Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.

Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.

But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record.

The tags, labelled "spychips" by privacy campaigners, are already used around the world to keep track of dogs, cats, cattle and airport luggage, but there is no record of the technology being used to monitor offenders in the community. The chips are also being considered as a method of helping to keep order within prisons.

A senior Ministry of Justice official last night confirmed that the department hoped to go even further, by extending the geographical range of the internal chips through a link-up with satellite-tracking similar to the system used to trace stolen vehicles. "All the options are on the table, and this is one we would like to pursue," the source added.

The move is in line with a proposal from Ken Jones, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), that electronic chips should be surgically implanted into convicted paedophiles and sex offenders in order to track them more easily. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is seen as the favoured method of monitoring such offenders to prevent them going near "forbidden" zones such as primary schools.

"We have wanted to take advantage of this technology for several years, because it seems a sensible solution to the problems we are facing in this area," a senior minister said last night. "We have looked at it and gone back to it and worried about the practicalities and the ethics, but when you look at the challenges facing the criminal justice system, it's time has come."

The Government has been forced to review sentencing policy amid serious overcrowding in the nation's jails, after the prison population soared from 60,000 in 1997 to 80,000 today. The crisis meant the number of prisoners held in police cells rose 13-fold last year, with police stations housing offenders more than 60,000 times in 2007, up from 4,617 the previous year. The UK has the highest prison population per capita in western Europe, and the Government is planning for an extra 20,000 places at a cost of £3.8bn – including three gigantic new "superjails" – in the next six years.

More than 17,000 individuals, including criminals and suspects released on bail, are subject to electronic monitoring at any one time, under curfews requiring them to stay at home up to 12 hours a day. But official figures reveal that almost 2,000 offenders a year escape monitoring by tampering with ankle tags or tearing them off. Curfew breaches rose from 11,435 in 2005 to 43,843 in 2006 – up 283 per cent. The monitoring system, which relies on mobile-phone technology, can fail if the network crashes.

A multimillion-pound pilot of satellite monitoring of offenders was shelved last year after a report revealed many criminals simply ditched the ankle tag and separate portable tracking unit issued to them. The "prison without bars" project also failed to track offenders when they were in the shadow of tall buildings.

The Independent on Sunday has now established that ministers have been assessing the merits of cutting-edge technology that would make it virtually impossible for individuals to remove their electronic tags.

The tags, injected into the back of the arm with a hypodermic needle, consist of a toughened glass capsule holding a computer chip, a copper antenna and a "capacitor" that transmits data stored on the chip when prompted by an electromagnetic reader.

But details of the dramatic option for tightening controls over Britain's criminals provoked an angry response from probation officers and civil-rights groups. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "If the Home Office doesn't understand why implanting a chip in someone is worse than an ankle bracelet, they don't need a human-rights lawyer; they need a common-sense bypass.

"Degrading offenders in this way will do nothing for their rehabilitation and nothing for our safety, as some will inevitably find a way round this new technology."

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said the proposal would not make his members' lives easier and would degrade their clients. He added: "I have heard about this suggestion, but we feel the system works well enough as it is. Knowing where offenders like paedophiles are does not mean you know what they are doing.

"This is the sort of daft idea that comes up from the department every now and then, but tagging people in the same way we tag our pets cannot be the way ahead. Treating people like pieces of meat does not seem to represent an improvement in the system to me."

The US market leader VeriChip Corp, whose parent company has been selling radio tags for animals for more than a decade, has sold 7,000 RFID microchips worldwide, of which about 2,000 have been implanted in humans. The company claims its VeriChips are used in more than 5,000 installations, crossing healthcare, security, government and industrial markets, but they have also been used to verify VIP membership in nightclubs, automatically gaining the carrier entry – and deducting the price of their drinks from a pre-paid account.

The possible value of the technology to the UK's justice system was first highlighted 18 months ago, when Acpo's Mr Jones suggested the chips could be implanted into sex offenders. The implants would be tracked by satellite, enabling authorities to set up "zones", including schools, playgrounds and former victims' homes, from which individuals would be barred.

"If we are prepared to track cars, why don't we track people?" Mr Jones said. "You could put surgical chips into those of the most dangerous sex offenders who are willing to be controlled."

The case for: 'We track cars, so why not people?'

The Government is struggling to keep track of thousands of offenders in the community and is troubled by an overcrowded prison system close to bursting. Internal tagging offers a solution that could impose curfews more effectively than at present, and extend the system by keeping sex offenders out of "forbidden areas". "If we are prepared to track cars, why don't we track people?" said Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

Officials argue that the internal tags enable the authorities to enforce thousands of court orders by ensuring offenders remain within their own walls during curfew hours – and allow the immediate verification of ID details when challenged.

The internal tags also have a use in maintaining order within prisons. In the United States, they are used to track the movement of gang members within jails.

Offenders themselves would prefer a tag they can forget about, instead of the bulky kit carried around on the ankle.

The case against: 'The rest of us could be next'

Professionals in the criminal justice system maintain that the present system is 95 per cent effective. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is unproven. The technology is actually more invasive, and carries more information about the host. The devices have been dubbed "spychips" by critics who warn that they would transmit data about the movements of other people without their knowledge.

Consumer privacy expert Liz McIntyre said a colleague had already proved he could "clone" a chip. "He can bump into a chipped person and siphon the chip's unique signal in a matter of seconds," she said.

One company plans deeper implants that could vibrate, electroshock the implantee, broadcast a message, or serve as a microphone to transmit conversations. "Some folks might foolishly discount all of these downsides and futuristic nightmares since the tagging is proposed for criminals like rapists and murderers," Ms McIntyre said. "The rest of us could be next."

13 January 2008

The Exon-Florio National Security Test for Foreign Investment

Congressional Research Service
Library of Congress

The proposed acquisition of six major U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World and Unocal by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has sparked intense concerns among some Members of Congress and the public and has reignited the debate over what role foreign acquisitions play in U.S. national security. While the United States actively promotes internationally the policy of relaxing rules concerning foreign investment, including the national treatment of foreign firms, some in Congress and others question some aspects of this policy as it relates to allowing foreign competitors unlimited access to the Nation’s industrial base. Much of this debate focuses on the activities of a relatively obscure committee, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the Exon-Florio provision, which gives the President broad powers to block certain types of foreign investment. This report will be updated as warranted by events.

According to the Department of Commerce,1 foreigners invested $113 billion in U.S. businesses and real estate in 2004, which represents nearly a tripling in the amount invested in 2003. This amount, however, is about half as much as U.S. firms invested abroad and far below the record $300 billion foreigners invested in 2000.

The cumulative amount, or stock, of foreign direct investment in the United States on a historical cost basis3 increased by $38 billion in 2003 to nearly $1.4 trillion.

With over $230 billion invested in the United States, Great Britain is the largest foreign direct investor. Japan has moved into the position as the second largest foreign direct investor in the U.S. economy with over $159 billion in investments. Following the Japanese are the Germans ($149 billion) and Dutch ($146 billion), with the French close behind ($143 billion). Recently, China has attracted particular attention as a result of a number of proposed acquisitions. Worldwide, Chinese acquisition transactions jumped from $2-$3 billion in previous years to $23 billion so far in 2005.

In 1988, amid concerns over foreign acquisition of certain types of U.S. firms, particularly by Japanese firms, Congress approved the Exon-Florio provision of the Defense Production Act.6 This statute grants the President the authority to block proposed or pending foreign acquisitions of “persons engaged in interstate commerce in the United States” that threaten to impair the national security. In subsequent legislation, Congress directed that this process be applied “in any instance in which an entity controlled by or acting on behalf of a foreign government seeks to engage in any merger, acquisition, or takeover which could result in control of a person engaged in interstate commerce in the United States that could affect the national security of the United States.” Many in Congress were concerned at the time that foreign takeovers of U.S. firms could not be stopped unless the President declared a national emergency or regulators invoked federal antitrust, environmental, or securities laws. The Exon-Florio provision grants the President the authority to take what action he considers to be “appropriate” to suspend or prohibit proposed or pending foreign acquisitions, mergers, or takeovers of persons engaged in interstate commerce in the United States which threaten to impair the national security.

The authority to administer the Exon-Florio provision was delegated to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS),8 which is housed in the Department of the Treasury. The Committee had been established under a previous Executive Order with broad responsibilities, but few powers.9 It was originally established with eight members, but has been expanded to twelve over time. The twelve members include the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, Defense, Homeland Security, and Commerce; the United States Trade Representative; the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers; the Attorney General; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget; the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.10 The Committee has 30 days to decide whether to investigate a case and an additional 45 days to make its recommendation. Once the recommendation is made, the President has 15 days to act.

According to one source,13 CFIUS has received more than 1,500 notifications, of which it conducted a full investigation of 25 cases. Of these 25 cases, thirteen transactions were withdrawn upon notice that CFIUS would conduct a full review and twelve of the remaining transactions cases were sent to the President. Of these twelve transactions, one was prohibited.

H.R. 556: Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007

Presidential Executive Order 13456 of January 23, 2008

Stop the North American Union

Willie Nelson: I’d Rather Have an Electric Chair Named After Me Than a NAFTA Toll Road

Country music icon Willie Nelson said it would have been “one of the dumbest things” he could have ever done to accept an invitation from the state of Texas to have a toll road named after him.

“First of all I don’t like toll roads and I wouldn’t like for a guy to drive up on the Willie Nelson road and have to spend his last dollar getting from point A to point B and I didn’t want a toll road named after me - that’s ridiculous - I’d rather have an electric chair named after me,” Nelson told the Alex Jones Show yesterday.

Nelson said he initially thought about the proposal but immediately rejected it after he found out the true intention of the toll road, adding, “It didn’t seem right and still doesn’t seem right.”

Nelson’s fellow music star Jimmy Vaughan has been active in speaking out against the Trans Texas Corridor and the NAFTA Superhighway and he was one of the individuals who advised Willie to reject the proposal.

“I heard from Jimmy and I heard from some other folks who said that hey this is something you want to think about because it’s different from what they’re telling you and when I started finding out how different it was - today people are having to pay to drive on a road that was free for them yesterday and that didn’t seem right.”

US citizens will be forced to adopt a de-facto national identification card and have their freedom of mobility defined by behavioral fealty to the government under proposals set to derive from NAFTA superhighway toll road systems and the implementation of the North American Union.

Similar toll systems snaking their way from the southern and northern borders cutting through major American cities will force American citizens to submit to having RFID enabled identification cards which contain an ever-increasing array of information about their personal lives.

To even be allowed to use major roads and highways, US citizens will be subject to a criminal background check and the government will have the ability to pinpoint their particular RFID signal and remotely block it from central computer mainframes - effectively abolishing freedom of mobility in America.

Nelson said it was “one of the dumbest things I could have done” to have the toll road named after him.

Click here to listen to the MP3 audio of the interview.

February 19th, 2008

Willie Nelson: Impeach Bush, “Throw The Bastards Out” - "If you break the law you have to pay for it one way or another and if these guys haven’t broke the law nobody has. We went through a couple of elections now and we didn’t do anything, we thought we did but come to find out that the voting machines are crooked, everything’s stacked against us, the politicians that we vote for won’t stay and fight and they won’t count the votes. It could be anything and anything will work because they have everyone scared to death, I just think there are people out there who will do anything to stay in power, anything to keep what they have, they’ve already proven they’ll do anything to keep it. I was talking about the third building that nothing hit and yet it fell as if it was hit the same way, all three buildings fell the same way, but the third building wasn’t hit by anything." 9/11 was an inside job.

Congressman Ron Paul and Lou Dobbs versus Texas toll road giveaway scam - 19 February 2008

TDOT plans to steal land for private foreign toll road in Knoxville

The former "Orange Route," now known as the Knoxville Parkway, could soon become a reality as a toll road.

The Knoxville Chamber asked Tennessee Department of Transportation officials for more information on the parkway.

It would connect I-40 in Loudon County to I-75 in Anderson County and could extend east from there.

TDOT described two options for funding, the first being the traditional method.

The second possibility is a tollway, and it is one local leaders are considering.

TDOT defers to local government to decide if a toll route is the path forward but says it would allow the project to move ahead much faster than traditional financing.

Comments:

I have a question on this issue that has been bothering me since it originally was discussed years ago. We already have I640. No, it is not a MAJOR bypass as bigger cities have but we do have a bypass. If you take people who are traveling several miles north of the city and divert them to several miles south of the city, are we not potentially losing thousands and eventually millions of dollars to the local economy? I understand the traffic issues but if you give Bob and Jane from Lexington, KY a direct route to Disneyworld without ever having to even know that they passed Knoxville along the way, are our fiscal managers not cutting our heads off for us to bleed slowly to our death?

Redflex Traffic Systems - "Redflex Traffic Systems has been exporting successful automated traffic enforcement programs to municipalities worldwide since 1997. With offices in Australia (head office), the USA and Europe, Redflex products include Toll camera enforcement solutions."

2/20/2008

Tennessee Senate votes to require toll contractors to be American-owned

NASHVILLE - The Senate has unanimously passed a bill to require companies contracting with the state to operate toll roads or bridges to be majority American owned.

Sen. Tim Burchett, a Knoxville Republican, says he introduced the bill for national security reasons.

The Legislature last year approved a pilot program that would allow one toll road and one toll bridge project in Tennessee. No project has yet been approved.

The House Transportation Committee is scheduled to take up the companion bill on Tuesday.

More details as they develop online and in Friday's News Sentinel.

February 28, 2008

Redflex Traffic Systems - "Redflex Traffic Systems has been exporting successful automated traffic enforcement programs to municipalities worldwide since 1997. With offices in Australia (head office), the USA and Europe, Redflex products include Toll camera enforcement solutions."

Knoxville Tennessee Parkway project spends $250,000 toward toll as I40 Malfunction Junction closed for 2 years

East Tennessee is inching closer and closer to the state's first toll road.

Wednesday morning, regional leaders who comprise the Transportation Planning Organization approved $250,000 to continue studying what to do with the Knoxville Parkway project. Now, they want to know what happens if they make it a toll road.

The Knoxville Parkway is a 26-mile stretch of highway that would bypass downtown Knoxville, connecting I-40 near the Loudon-Knox County line to I-75 near the Norris/Clinton exit in Anderson County. It was formerly known as the "orange route".

TDOT is also considering the idea of a second route that would connect I-75 in Anderson County to I-40 near Sevier County, essentially completing a half circle bypass north of Knoxville.

To many drivers in East Tennessee, the idea of a toll doesn't go over very well.

"When you said toll, that means money, and as tight as things are now..." Clinton driver Mark Merritt said doubtfully.

"Who wants to pay to drive across a piece of your own state?" Selena Foust of Andersonville said.

But local leaders and TDOT say there are definite benefits if they choose to connect I-75 with a tollway.

"I think right now, the $600 million to just complete the western segment is going to be very difficult to raise," TDOT Chief of Environment and Planning Ed Cole said.

The issue revolves around cash. Construction projects in Tennessee are required to basically work in a pay-as-you-go method. As projects get money each budget cycle, they can plan and build.

With a tollway, they're allowed to build with credit.

The bottom line when those rules apply to the Knoxville Parkway is a matter of years. With traditional funding, the project will likely be completed around the year 2023. With a toll, it could be done by 2015.

Now, regional leaders are moving forward, asking for more information. In the feasibility study ordered Wednesday, they'll find out how much drivers would be willing to pay and get more detailed construction cost estimates. The study will likely be complete late this summer or early fall.

In order for TDOT to move ahead and start construction, they'll have to get approval from the local elected officials who serve on that Transportation Planning Organization.

"It's a joint process. The department is not interested in pursuing a toll project without full support from local government," Cole said.

"In other states that we go through, when we travel, I just think it's an aggravation," Merritt said. "I don't really want to see it come here."

Give us your questions and feedback

We're just over two months away from the biggest detour East Tennessee has ever seen. At midnight May 1, TDOT will shut down I-40 between Hall of Fame Drive and James White Parkway in downtown Knoxville for 14 months, as they widen the road. It's part of the huge SmartFIX40 project that has affect our drive for a couple of years now. As 10 News works on a special set to air in April, we'd like to hear from you. E-mail us with your questions and comments on the project.

2/28/2008

Redflex Traffic Systems - "Redflex Traffic Systems has been exporting successful automated traffic enforcement programs to municipalities worldwide since 1997. With offices in Australia (head office), the USA and Europe, Redflex products include Toll camera enforcement solutions."

Blood Detecting Traffic Cameras in UK

Motorists will be targeted by a new generation of road cameras which work out how many people are in a car by measuring the amount of bodily fluid it contains.

The latest snooping device on the nation’s roads aims to penalise lone drivers who abuse car-sharing lanes, and is part of a Government effort to combat congestion at busy times.

The cameras work by sending an infrared beam through the windscreen of vehicles which detects the unique make-up of blood and water content in human skin.

The system’s inventors believe it will catch out motorists who try to fool existing CCTV road cameras by placing mannequins in passenger seats or fixing photographs to windscreens.

It will at first be used to police car-sharing lanes in Leeds, but councils across the country have already expressed an interest in using them.

February 23, 2008

Two TN cities busted over revenue-light cameras

By Michael Silence
Knoxville News Sentinel
March 27, 2008

According to the car blog Jalopnik and the National Motorists Association, Nashville is one of six cities (also including Chattanooga) accused of shortening the amber cycle on certain traffic light intersections in a reported effort to pick the pockets of unsuspecting drivers.

Union City, California; Lubbock, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Springfield, Missouri; Dallas, Texas and Chattanooga, Tennessee — you're all on notice. We already hate the idea of the omnipresent big brother handing out speeding tickets through the watchful eye of the traffic camera, but when the deck is stacked in the states' favor, it's time to call shenanigans. All six of these cities have been accused and found guilty of excessively short amber cycles on certain traffic camera equipped intersections — a convenient way to pickpocket unsuspecting drivers as they pass though an intersection.

Traffic cameras are claimed to be used to discourage running red lights, and improving public safety, even though studies are beginning to show evidence to the contrary. We'll be happy when the states figure out how to run their respective governments without traffic fines acting as unlevied taxes against the citizens.

Even without red light cameras, police in Nashville, Tennessee have been earning hundreds of thousands in revenue by trapping motorists in conventional ticket traps at city intersections with the shortest yellow warning time.

In 2006, Nashville resident Joe Savage obtained the data on every red light running ticket issued on Broadway street since 2000. He said that yellow lights are longer at intersections along Broadway until the areas where police are issuing tickets. At those locations, Savage clocked the yellow signal time at less than 3 seconds, in violation of both state law and federal regulations.

For some reason, this is just now making the Internet. Also, according to www.speedtrap.org, Nashville is one of the worst speed trap cities in the country. Have these people ever driven here in rush hour? Or been on the 440 Speedway?

Six Cities Caught Shortening Yellow Light Times For Profit

National Motorists Assn
Motorists.org March 26th, 2008

Short yellow light times at intersections have been shown to increase the number of traffic violations and accidents. Conversely, increasing the yellow light duration can dramatically reduce red-light violations at an intersection.

Some local governments have ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead.

Here are some of the cities that have been caught with short yellow light times over the past few years:

Important note: These news stories were collected from the archives of TheNewspaper.com, an excellent resource for anyone interested in traffic laws and other motorist issues. If you subscribe to TheNewspaper.com’s feed, you’ll never miss the latest news. It makes an excellent complement to this blog.

1) Chattanooga, Tennessee

The city of Chattanooga was forced refund $8800 in red light cameras tickets issued to motorists trapped by an illegally short yellow time. The refund only occurred after a motorist challenged his citation by insisting that the yellow light time of 3.0 seconds was too short. LaserCraft, the private vendor that runs the camera program in return for a cut of the profits, provided the judge with a computer database that asserted the yellow was 3.8 seconds at that location.

The judge then personally checked the intersection in question was timed at three seconds while other nearby locations had about four seconds of yellow warning. City traffic engineer John Van Winkle told Bean that “a mix up with the turn arrow” was responsible and that the bare minimum for the light should be 3.9 seconds.

Read the Full Story

2) Dallas, Texas

An investigation by KDFW-TV, a local TV station, found that of the ten cameras that issued the greatest number of tickets in the city, seven were located at intersections where the yellow duration is shorter than the bare minimum recommended by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

The city’s second highest revenue producing camera, for example, was located at the intersection of Greenville Avenue and Mockingbird Lane. It issued 9407 tickets worth $705,525 between January 1 and August 31, 2007. At the intersections on Greenville Avenue leading up to the camera intersection, however, yellows are at least 3.5 or 4.0 seconds in duration, but the ticket-producing intersection’s yellow stands at just 3.15 seconds. That is 0.35 seconds shorter than TxDOT’s recommended bare minimum. Dallas likewise installed the cameras at locations with existing short yellow times. A total of twenty-one camera intersections in Dallas had yellow times below TxDOT’s bare minimum recommended amount.

The ticket camera program in Dallas made the news recently for shutting down some of its cameras because they were no longer profitable.

Read the Full Story

3) Springfield, Missouri

The city of Springfield, Missouri prepared for the installation of a red light camera system in 2007 by slashing the yellow warning time by one second at 105 state-owned intersection signals across the city.

The city defended its effort to the Springfield News-Leader by claiming it was “standardizing” and had increased the yellow time at 136 city-operated lights to meet national standards. During the city council meeting last October where the red light camera ordinance was approved, however, Assistant Director of Public Works Earl Newman gave a different explanation for the reduction. Newman said he was, “concerned that many individuals run the light if the light remained yellow too long.”

Read the Full Story

4) Lubbock, Texas

KBCD, a local television station, exposed the city’s short timing of yellow lights at eight of the twelve intersections where the devices were to be installed.

Prior to the news investigation, Lubbock City Engineer Jere Hart assured city council members that he would not increase yellow times. According to the city council’s traffic commission minutes of September 19, 2006, Jere said, “if [the red light camera program is] implemented, the public would prefer to have an increased amber cycle,” but he stated that, “the program will not adjust the amber/yellow time.”

Shortly after the investigation became public, red-light cameras were installed in Lubbock. However, after they proved to be both unprofitable (due in part to a new state law giving 50% of the ticket camera profit to the state) and unsafe (accidents increased where the cameras were installed), they were taken down.

Read the Full Story

5)Nashville, Tennessee

Even without red light cameras, police in Nashville, Tennessee have been earning hundreds of thousands in revenue by trapping motorists in conventional ticket traps at city intersections with the shortest yellow warning time.

In 2006, Nashville resident Joe Savage obtained the data on every red light running ticket issued on Broadway street since 2000. He said that yellow lights are longer at intersections along Broadway until the areas where police are issuing tickets. At those locations, Savage clocked the yellow signal time at less than 3 seconds, in violation of both state law and federal regulations. A local newspaper, The Nashville Scene, then confirmed his findings.

Read the Full Story

6) Union City, California

In 2005, Union City, California was caught trapping motorists with a yellow signal time 1.3 seconds below the minimum established by state law. As a result, the city was forced to refund more than $1 million in red light camera fines.

The city’s violation came to light after Dave Goodson, an engineer, received a ticket and realized that he did not have sufficient time to stop before the light had turned red. As a result of his inquiries, Union City’s traffic engineers admitted that they had set the yellow signal time at Union City Boulevard and Lowry Road at 3 seconds, despite the state law mandating the time be 4.3 seconds or greater.

Authorities said that the yellow was too short long before the cameras were installed, but that no effective system was in place to verify the timing of the traffic signals despite their direct impact on safety.

Read the Full Story

Closing Notes:

These are only the cities that have been caught; it’s likely that this happens much more than the general public has been led to believe. Many cities avoid the bad publicity involved with shortening yellow lights by installing the cameras at intersections with inadequate yellow light times from the beginning.

If you or a family member receive an unjustified red-light violation ticket, it may be worth your time to check the yellow light duration at the intersection where the ticket was given out.

Also, if you know of any city currently shortening yellow lights in your area, let everyone know by posting it the comments of this post.

Williams vs Redflex and City of Knoxville Municipal Corp - Class action to refund all robocop tickets and pay for shortening light timing and increasing crashes

Colorado: City Adds More Cameras Despite Accident Increase

Aurora, Colorado proposes to expand lucrative red light camera program despite massive increase in the number of accidents at monitored intersections.

Red light cameras in Aurora, Colorado have failed to yield any reduction in the overall number of accidents since the devices were installed in May 2005. Nonetheless, city officials have approved a measure that will allow the expansion of the existing four-intersection setup to one covering up to twenty-five city locations. The devices were successful between 2006 and 2007 in issuing 19,087 tickets worth $1,431,525.

"We think there's a value to taking the program to the next step," Police Chief Daniel Oates told the Rocky Mountain News newspaper.

At three of the four ticketing locations, rear end collisions increased dramatically from 2005 to 2006. At Mississippi Avenue and Potomac, rear end collisions jumped 175 percent. At Alameda Avenue and Abilene Street, the increase was 100 percent. Only one intersection saw a 60 percent drop in one specific type of accident, likely as a result of the statistical phenomenon known as regression to the mean. This happens when a camera is installed at a location with an unusually high number of accidents in one year. As the number of accidents returns to the "normal" level, city officials credit the change to their camera program.

Aurora may add cameras to catch red light runners, Rocky Mountain News, 3/26/2008

Israeli Dept of Homeland Security to strip search all airline passengers in USA

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is scheduled to visit BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport Monday to announce changes at airport security checkpoints.

Chertoff [who is a citizen of Israel whose mother was a terrorist for Mossad] will demonstrate what is called "Checkpoint Evolution."

The Transportation Security Administration Web site features videos to explain the features and goals of the equipment.

According to the Web site, the checkpoints will feature soothing music to calm passengers, easy-to-read signs [in Mexican and Commie Chinese] and Plexiglas conveyor belts allowing passengers to see their luggage move through the inspection [Constitution waiver] process.

The system also uses a new full body scanner. The TSA says it doesn't show a person's face and says images are deleted immediately after they are reviewed [by 1,000s of illegal aliens employed by TSA as private airport security screeners]. [Why not just put a bag over their head and strip search them for real?]

Apr 28, 2008

Tennessee camera ticket spurs e-mail threats - Germantown arrests woman for harassment

By Lela Garlington
May 1, 2008

A Cordova woman apparently saw red when she opened her mail and found a traffic citation from one of the city's automated traffic cameras.

Now she is facing not only a $50 fine for running a red light but also a misdemeanor charge of harassment.

Alison Reed, 37, is accused of sending five harassing e-mails over the weekend to a host of elected Germantown city officials and city staff. Germantown Police Lt. Ed McGee said she was arrested without incident Monday.

The e-mails were often rambling but included vague threats.

One stated in part, "If you ever give another citizen of MY country a ticket through your detestable and illegal traffic cameras, I will destroy your entire city and devastate your people with such wrath as has never been seen before."

Another said in part "... take them down or your entire staff will be removed either with force or death ..."

McGee said the police mailed a ticket to Reed on April 21 citing her with running a red light on April 18.

Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy let the aldermen know about the arrest during Monday night's executive session before the regular Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting.

City Admin. Patrick Lawton indicated Reed is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation.

Tennessee Bill Would Ban Shortened Yellow Lights

The Tennessee state House of Representatives will consider enacting legislation as early as today to ban the practice of shortening the duration of yellow lights where red light cameras are installed. The measure, introduced in the form of an amendment by retiring Representative Phillip Pinion (D-Union City), has already passed the state Senate.

"No state agency or any political subdivision of the state that installs, owns, operates, or maintains a traffic-control signal light in an intersection that employs a surveillance camera for the enforcement or monitoring of traffic violations shall reduce the time exposure of the yellow light at such intersection with the intended purpose of increasing the number of traffic violations," House Bill 3854 states.

The bill coincides with an expected vote on legislation that, although promoted as a limitation on their use, gives the green light to cities throughout the state to install automated ticketing machines - view bill. The net effect of the yellow light limitation would be negligible, however. There are only a handful of documented cases of cities shortening yellow light duration after the installation of red light cameras.

The more significant problem, as documented in a report by the office of the US House Majority Leader in 2001, is that cities following national signal timing guidelines have systematically given motorists less warning of impending red lights (view report). Cities and traffic camera vendors have been found that intersections with the shortest yellow lights are the most profitable locations for cameras -- but the signals in many cases have been short for ten years or more - see San Diego memo. In 2005, the Texas Transportation Institute reported that cities interested in reducing accidents could increase yellow signal timing by one second above the recommended ITE minimum value - view report.

A full copy of the legislation is available in a 45k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: House Bill 3854, Tennessee General Assembly, 5/1/2008

Ohio Court Tosses Laser Speed Gun Readings

An appellate court on Monday ruled that key evidence used in Ohio speed traps was not admissible. With millions in local government revenue at stake, the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Ninth District found the accuracy of laser-based speed guns (lidar) to be unproven. The decision could inspire challenges to laser tickets throughout the state.

The present case began when Ohio State Trooper Dennis Matulin hid along the median of Interstate 71 with an LTI 20-20 laser speed gun waiting for the device to indicate that someone had exceeded the speed limit. Matulin charged that when Donald Miko's semi truck passed his location, the lidar gun displayed a reading of 67 MPH. The limit for trucks on the road is 55 and for cars 65.

At trial in the Medina County Municipal Court, Miko objected that the trooper's LTI 20-20 had never been proved reliable in an Ohio court of law. The prosecutor merely asserted the contrary. The magistrate quickly agreed, saying, "Yes, the court had done so by prior judgment entry." The court imposed a $100 fine and two points against Miko's commercial driving license. Appellate Judge Clair E. Dickinson scolded the lower court for violating the rule that a county court must publish, or report, a "judgment entry" used for the purpose of taking judicial notice.

"Nobody has brought a reported decision of the Medina Municipal Court considering the accuracy of the LTI 20-20 device to this court's attention," Judge Clair E. Dickinson wrote. "The trial court, therefore, was not authorized to take judicial notice of the scientific accuracy of the LTI 20-20 laser device by Rule 201(B)(1) of the Ohio Rules of Evidence."

Dickinson went on to point out that the unreported case which the Medina court cited to convict Miko did not include any required testimony from expert witnesses. As a result, the court overturned Miko's conviction.

"In the absence of a reference to a case in which the trial court determined, based on scientific testimony it heard in that case, that the LTI 20-20 laser device is scientifically accurate, the trial court was not authorized... to take judicial notice of its accuracy," the appeals court concluded. "Inasmuch as the trial court was not authorized to take judicial notice..., it erred by doing so."

The British media has been scathing in its treatment of the inaccuracy of the LTI 20-20 speed gun. The basic operation problem is that handheld laser speed guns must take two separate measurements of distance to generate a speed estimate. If, while taking a speed reading, an officer's hand twitches slightly, the laser beam can "slip" from one portion of a vehicle to another. The extra distance measured in the second reading is then added to the calculation that determines the speed readout. For example, if the speed gun's aim point slips from the windshield to the grill, the speed reading will read 8 MPH too high. London's Daily Mail newspaper, the BBC, and ITV network have each run stories exposing fundamental flaws in the way lidar guns estimate speed.

A full copy of the ruling is available in a 35k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Ohio v. Miko, Ohio Court of Appeals for the Ninth District, 4/28/2008

Middle classes losing faith in 'rude' police who go for soft targets instead of the real criminals

By James Slack
Daily Mail
30 May 2008

The middle classes have lost confidence in the police, a stark report has warned.

They fear they have been alienated by a service which routinely targets ordinary people rather than serious criminals, simply to fill Government crime quotas.

The attitude of some officers has also led to spiralling complaints about neglect of duty and rudeness.

The report from the Civitas think-tank says incidents which would once have been ignored are now treated as crimes - including a case of children chalking a pavement.

Its author, respected journalist Harriet Sergeant, says she was also told of a student being arrested, held for five hours and cautioned for keeping a London Underground lift door open with his foot.

The report warns that a generation of young people - the police's favourite soft targets - are being criminalised, putting their future prospects at risk.

Some offences being prosecuted are now so minor that senior officers have even begun talks with the U.S. authorities to prevent such a 'criminal record' stopping decent citizens obtaining a visa to cross the Atlantic.

Meanwhile responses to crimes such as burglary are slow and statements given by victims of serious crime are often left lying idle for months, the report warns.

An apparent emphasis on motoring crimes is another negative factor.

Miss Sergeant warns: 'The loss of public confidence is a serious matter.

'The police cannot police without the backing of society. Without trust and consensus it is very difficult and costly to maintain law and order.'

Her report says: 'Complaints against the police have risen, with much of the increase coming from law-abiding, middle-class, middle-aged and retired people who no longer feel the police are on their side.'

In 2006-7, there were 29,637 complaints - the most since records began 17 years ago.

Miss Sergeant said this was due in part to the law-abiding middle-classes becoming upset by the 'rudeness and behaviour' of officers.

The report details how officers are expected to reach a certain number of 'sanction detections' a month by charging, cautioning or fining an 'offender'.

Arresting or fining someone for a trifling offence - such as a child stealing a Mars bar - is a good way of hitting the target and pleasing the Home Office.

Amazingly, the chocolate theft ranks as highly as catching a killer.

Miss Sergeant says performance-related bonuses of between £10,000 and £15,000 a year for police commanders depend partly on reaching such targets.

This leads them to put pressure on frontline officers to make arrests for the most minor misdemeanours.

Officers said at the end of a month, when there was pressure to hit the target for that period, they would pursue young men as the most likely 'offenders'.

Offences could include scrawling a name on a bus stop in felt-tip or playing ball games in the street.

One officer was so concerned he told his teenage son to be careful at the end of each month.

The pamphlet, parts of which were serialised by the Daily Mail earlier this year, says the police themselves are angry at the way they have to 'make fools of themselves'.

There were high levels of 'bitterness and frustration' and the targets were 'bitterly resented'.

One officer told how he was pressed to charge children playing with a tree with 'harassment'.

The same offence was used against a drunken student dancing in flowerbeds, who aimed a kick at a flower.

Tennessee Speed Trap Town May Lose Every Speeding Ticket

TheNewspaper.com

Every interstate speeding ticket issued since January 1 could be thrown out after a ruling in Coopertown, Tennessee

View Coopertown city court order

A notorious Tennessee speed trap may find itself losing every penny collected from its major source of speeding ticket revenue. According to a city court judge's ruling last week, because Coopertown had no jurisdiction to issue tickets on Interstate 24. Now lawyers involved in the case want to file a class action lawsuit to force the town to refund every dime it has collected in violation of the law.

Coopertown achieved national fame after its mayor, Danny Crosby, was first thrown out of office only to be reinstated upon appeal. According to court testimony, Crosby instructed police officers to "ticket soldier boys" from nearby Fort Campbell in addition to focusing on out-of-town and minority drivers.

"These instances could be labeled as and could be said to range from bigotry, sexism or utter foolishness to insidious discrimination or the purposeful violation of the constitutional rights of others," Judge Laurence M. McMillan, Jr. wrote in his 2006 decision reinstating Crosby. "How much of the facts of this case can be resolved as small town politics and how much may constitute the actual misuse of power is a decision to be made by this court, but in the future may be made by the voters of the city of Coopertown." (View decision)

Crosby's latest trouble stems from the May 1 traffic stop of motorist Jeff Davis whom Coopertown police accused of tailgating. Davis insisted the charge was ridiculous and, with the help of attorney Gregory Smith, he argued that Coopertown neglected to follow a state law requiring each small town to register itself with the state police each year before setting out to patrol an interstate highway. As reported by the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle newspaper, that was enough for City Court Judge Earl Porter.

"The Coopertown Police officer and this honorable court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over traffic citations issued on any portion of the national system of interstate and defense highways as of May 1, 2008 because (Coopertown) did not give proper notification of the town's intent to issue traffic citations on the national system of interstate and defense highways for the year 2008 as required by the (state law)," Porter wrote in a June 4 ruling.

If successful, a class action lawsuit could force the refund of every ticket issued on I-24 since January 1.

Source: I-24 ticket tossed, others may follow - Clarksville Leaf Chronicle TN, 6/6/2008

ACLU Report Shows Red Light Camera Flaws

TheNewspaper.com
6/12/2008

ACLU of Rhode Island report shows the city of Providence failed to demonstrate any benefit from its red light camera program.

A report released yesterday by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued that the state's only red light camera operation has been a complete failure. In 2005, supportive lawmakers narrowly passed a law authorizing photo ticketing after agreeing to include a sunset provision that would invalidate the law in July 2008. With the deadline looming, supporters are scrambling to save the program. On Tuesday, the state Senate Judiciary Committee voted to make the photo ticketing authorization permanent. The full state House voted 35 to 23 to approve a similar measure on May 8. The ACLU's report is designed to give lawmakers a reason to re-think this course of action.

"Expensive. Ineffective. Inefficient. Intrusive of civil liberties. These are just a few ways to describe the Automated Traffic Violation Monitoring Systems, more commonly known as red light cameras," the ACLU report stated.

The report focused on five major problems with the program. The first is that the system is so expensive that the city of Providence ends up writing a large check each month to Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), the for-profit vendor in charge of ticketing. Combined with the lack of data showing the system has produced any safety benefits, the ACLU was left labeling the city's insistence on keeping the program "baffling."

Accidents in Providence increased from 2006 to 2007 at intersections where red light cameras were in use, but the city has held back the data which would allow analysis of accidents at these locations prior to camera installation. The report also charged that even when Providence provided numbers, they were not useful.

"Anyone attempting to analyze the city's data in any meaningful way is left scratching his or her head," the report stated. "It quickly becomes apparent that the numbers given cannot be trusted because they simply don't add up, making it impossible to come to any scientifically significant -- or even correlational -- conclusions."

The report showed that only 40 percent of intersection photographs taken actually resulted in citations being mailed. The city used a statistical trick -- counting only "controllable factors" -- to claim an 87 percent issuance rate. This ensured Providence exceeded the 70 percent minimum required by state standards. Finally, the report argued that photo ticketing represents a dilution of the due process rights of citizens because the owners of cars, not drivers, receive tickets weeks after a violation is issued, making it difficult to mount an effective challenge.

With these five main problems in mind, the ACLU urged the legislature to drop plans to renew the program.

"Such failures should not be rewarded, especially in light of the civil liberties incursions implicit in the implementation of a red light camera system," the report concluded. "The General Assembly should reject efforts to repeal the statutory sunset clause, and should instead let this failed experiment come to a graceful end."

The original Senate legislation to extend the life of the red light camera program included a provision specifically designed to force Providence to switch vendors from Dallas-based ACS to Providence-based Nestor Inc. The provision was dropped in committee.

A full copy of the report is available in a 1.3mb PDF file at the source link below.

Source: The Case Against Red Light Cameras - ACLU of Rhode Island, 6/11/2008

Tennessee Supreme Court Upholds Arrests for Driving Perfectly at 25 mph in 35 zone on 4-lane Downtown Streets at Night

TheNewspaper.com
6/26/2008

Driving through Tennessee so slowly that traffic begins to back up is now a ticketable offense. The state's supreme court on Monday issued a unanimous ruling making it clear that dawdling on the road can be considered a crime.

The case began when Chattanooga Police Officer Joseph Shaw noticed a slow-moving Nissan Altima on Market Street at about 1am on May 11, 2005. Shaw estimated the Altima driver was driving at 25 MPH on the four-lane road, even though the speed limit was 35 and the rest of the traffic on the road was flowing smoothly at 50 MPH. This difference in speed caused a backup, according to Officer Shaw.

"When (approaching automobiles) would come up behind us they would have to brake fairly quickly and change lanes in order to pass," Shaw testified. "And there was moderate traffic even for that time of night on that road."

Shaw followed the Altima for about fifteen blocks before deciding to pull over the driver, Richard Adam Hannah. Hannah had no license and showed some signs of intoxication. A later search discovered a small amount of cocaine and marijuana in the car, resulting in the arrest of Hannah and his passengers. Shaw's basis for the stop was a law against impeding the flow of traffic.

"No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or compliance with law," Tennessee Code section 55-8-154 states.

A trial court decided this law did not apply to the situation at hand and threw out the evidence against Hannah and his passengers. The trial court, with the support of appellate courts, interpreted the word "impede" in the statute as coming to a stop on the road and blocking other drivers from continuing on their way. The supreme court did not buy this interpretation.

"Had the legislature intended for a violation to occur only when an automobile was completely stopped in the roadway or caused other automobiles to stop, we presume it would have said so," Chief Justice William M. Barker wrote. "Accordingly, we agree with the state that the trial court's interpretation that a driver must cause other automobiles to come to a stop and wait for an unreasonable amount of time is too restrictive and would essentially emasculate the import of the statute."

The high court found that drivers may travel slowly, but only if that slowness does not cause a backup for other motorists or violate a posted minimum speed. The court also added in a footnote that driving at the speed limit is "normal and reasonable" even when everybody else on the road is traveling much more quickly.

A full copy of the decision is available in a 95k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Tennessee v. Hannah, Supreme Court of Tennessee, 6/23/2008

Grand Jury Indicts Judge and Court Clerk for Ticket Fixing - Half of all judges to be arrested

TheNewspaper.com
7/15/2008

A New Jersey grand jury yesterday handed down indictments against two former Jersey City Municipal Court officials caught in an alleged ticket fixing scandal. Chief Judge Wanda Molina, 48, and Court Administrator Virginia Pagan, 53, had each been charged last year with dismissing a combined total of 223 parking tickets either they or their relatives and friends had received. The pair were forced to resign their positions in September.

"When court officials engage in ticket fixing, it shakes the faith of average citizens who pay up when they get a ticket," New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said in a statement. "Today's indictments send a message that these defendants are not above the law and there is indeed one system of justice to which all must answer."

Molina was charged with two counts of second-degree official misconduct for actions she took between September 2006 and August 2007. According to the indictment, Molina dismissed eight parking tickets for a female companion with whom she had a "close personal relationship." Molina dismissed three of these tickets by writing "emergency" on the notice as if the recipient had presented a valid excuse. Conflict of interest rules prohibit judges from ever hearing a case in which they might have a personal or financial stake in the outcome.

As Jersey City's court administrator, Pagan's job included entering the disposition of cases into the court's official database. Pagan is accused of taking advantage of this access to dismiss 215 tickets, worth about $5000, that had been issued to her and her daughter. The indictment charged Pagan with second-degree official misconduct, third-degree pattern of official misconduct, third-degree tampering with public records or information, and fourth-degree falsifying records.

Molina and Pagan each face a sentence of up to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000. A new mandatory minimum sentencing law means they will spend at least five years behind bars if convicted. Additional indictments are expected as nearly half of the city's judges were accused in October of similar conduct.

"Fortunately, a tip put an end to their alleged abuses," New Jersey Criminal Justice Director Deborah Gramiccioni said. "We encourage anyone who suspects public corruption to report it to us."

View Pagan indictment

View Molina indictment