THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF HAWAII

625 Keawe St, Honolulu, HI 96813 (808) 537-3078

Scam Cam Notes

Presented to Kalihi Valley No. 16 at 7:00 PM 13 Feb 2002

Kalihi Valley No. 16 2nd Wednesday Kalihi Valley District Park
1911 Kam IV Road.

Kalihi Valley No. 16 board passed a motion to support Repeal of the traffic enforcement demonstration project.

Goal: To persuade listeners to take specified action towards removal of the Scam Cameras which violate our constitutional rights.

Points:

The State of Hawaii has embarked on an ambitious program to increase compliance with posted speed limits.

The program involves the use of high tech photo laser equipment mounted in vans or other vehicles to be parked beside the road.

The system senses passing vehicles and notes their rate of speed. Vehicles driving too fast will get their front and / or rear license plate photographed. A speeding ticket is then sent to the vehicles registered owner.

Since the system cannot prove who was driving the car the tickets should not go against anyones driving record, but this is not the case. Under current law, tickets will go on your driving abstract. 

Due to the extreme public hostility that now exists it is incumbent on elected officials to act quickly to terminate this program. In a democracy the government doesn’t get to do whatever it pleases.

DOT is way behind in updating it's registration database. As a result, there have been cases of tickets being issued to former owners of vehicles who sold their car months ago and did all the proper paper work notifying DOT of the new owners details.   Here we have completely innocent individuals hassled by getting tickets and having to waste their valuable time proving their innocence. Whatever happened to "presumed innocent till proven guilty"?

Ambiguities also occur in cases where the car is jointly owned, or registered to a company. To make matters worse, if the spouse or child of the registered owner was driving the car. The owner is expected to rat on his own family. In a murder case the courts can't make you do that. But apparently the big heads at DOT have deluded themselves into thinking they can legally make you betray your loved ones. 

The State Department of Transportation has entered into a contract two inches thick with a private company ACS to provide and operate the system in exchange for a $30 fee for each ticket issued. 

Since ACS collects a fee for each ticket, a conflict of interest exists. Clearly, it would be in ACS's financial interest to defraud drivers wherever and whenever they think they can get away with it.

Due process of law exists to insure that the personal freedom of any person accused on a complaint not be infringed upon unless there is probable cause for a neutral third party to believe that such an accused person has probably committed a crime. Obviously, ACS does not qualify as a neutral third party.

The Libertarian Party of Hawai'i, has been vocal in its opposition to traffic cameras since the idea was first raised here in 1997.

The basic underpinning of our speeding law is that you're allowed to drive safely and prudently, what ever the speed.

Speed does not kill. Loss of control of your car is what causes accidents, and consequentially deaths. 

"You've got no idea how far down the road you've gone and how much you're on the wrong track," said Nito Quitevis, a former commercial driver, traffic investigator and highway safety instructor in Duluth, Minn.

Quitevis, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, said he was so concerned that he took time out from his annual vacation to Hawai'i to warn lawmakers that the program was causing more problems than it solved.

"Speed doesn't kill," he said. "Distractions do. You've created a situation that's absolutely intolerable. Drivers aren't paying attention to the road; instead they are looking for the cameras. You've taken the most courteous drivers in the country and suddenly elevated road rage to Mainland levels."

The safest speed is that of prevailing traffic, even if, that speed is above the current speed limit. You can change the speed limits to that standard and still be very safe. Indy 500 racers travel safely around a track at over 200 mph with just a few feet or less between cars. 

Traffic studies indicate that the variance in speed is a much greater hazard than speed itself.

According to Martian Ljubic the most dangerous instrument in a car is the speedometer. Anything which takes your eyes off the road is a hazard, that includes, cell phones, radios, screaming kids and speedometers. Driving is really very easy. When you can see a long way ahead of you, you speed up. Your max speed is determined by how far you can see and how long it would take you to stop if something came into view which obstructed your path. When you cannot see far due to curves, hills, traffic, or intersections or the situation is such that something could obstruct your path you slow down. All this can be done safely without ever looking at a speedometer. In fact it may be safer if speedometers are disabled or removed from our cars.

According to national studies done by traffic engineers speed limits on most roads are 15 mph lower than the maximum safe speed. Posted speed limits are 8 to 12 mph lower than the prevailing speed of most drivers.

Compliance with Hawaiis posted speed limits is very low. Police and DOT estimates over the last twenty years have ranged from 46% to 97% non-complying. Some of these estimates include drivers stuck in traffic jams. Without these drivers included the 97% figure is probably more accurate.

Despite ignoring posted speed limits traffic safety in Hawaii has been improving. We probably have the safest roads in the United States without any help from automatic speed ticketing. The number of traffic accidents per year in Hawaii has dropped from over 25,000 in 1990 to about 10,000 today, an amazing record of improvement without any extraordinary speed enforcement efforts.

There are 750,000 licensed drivers in Hawaii. By my estimations that means about 740,000 speeders. It is clear by our driving habits what Hawaiis people think of our posted speed limits. Dont just think about H-1 and people driving 60 or 70 think about all the roads with 25 mph speed limits where the appropriate speed is 35 or more.

The public did not ask the legislature to initiate a high tech automated system, capable of writing two tickets per second. The company, ACS State and Local Solutions, that provides the system has a vested financial interest in the volume of tickets issued as they will receive about 30 dollars for each ticket. To my knowledge all the information about how "wonderful a system this is was provided to the legislature by this company. No efforts were made to contact other cities and states with similar systems.

The new system will issue tickets for those exceeding the speed limit by more than 10%. This is a far narrower threshold than has been applied by local law enforcement. Police know that a cars speedometer may be off by as much as 5 mph to begin with. In addition they have no motivation to ticket people who are driving safely and prudently despite the fact the posted speed limit may  be exceeded.

Local police officers were among the first to buy up special license plate coverings to prevent getting tickets themselves. The police officers union must give permission before their members are required to put in time operating this program. They are not inclined to give that permission.

It seems the only people in the State who want this system are the DOT and ACS that stand to profit by issuing unnecessary traffic tickets, some folks in the insurance industry who smell an opportunity to jack up rates, and State Senator Cal Kawamoto, whos Transportation Committee is responsible for the program getting through our legislature.

How many of you have received a camera ticket?

Here is how to

Beat that Scam Cam Ticket the easy way.

1. Ticket arrives: Reply by mail with the following statement: I do not believe there is evidence to support this claim. 

2. Send no money.

3. Show up on your court date. Refuse to make a statement i.e. Invoke the 5th Amendment.

4. Judge will dismiss because he cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are the driver in the photo.

Disclaimer - Contact your own legal advisor before taking action.

Among other objections we've heard regarding the scam cams

• Insurance rates are going to go up if I get a ticket.
• It's Big Brotherism or should I say Botherism.
• The cameras violate my right to privacy.
• It's just a moneymaker for the state.
• Law enforcement should be in the hands of police, not a private company.
• There's no chance to face your accuser in court.
• Sometimes it's safer to speed up; the cameras don't leave any room for discretion.
• The tickets go to the car owner, not the driver.
• The camera's flash at night can blind a driver.
• Since the camera operators get paid for each ticket, there's the potential that they'll abuse the system in the name of profit.
• Drivers are spending more time looking at their speedometer than the road.
• There's no hard evidence that the cameras actually reduce serious accidents; in some cases, they cause more accidents.

SB2077 Repeals photo traffic enforcement law and related amendments to Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Passed unammended on February 7th 2002

HB2167 Repeals the traffic enforcement demonstration project.

Passed on 13 February 2002  with HD1 which tries to fix the system instead of getting rid of it.

The next step is that HB2167 will go to the

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY AND HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS

Contact John Orendt  hi-lp@REMOVECAPShugetiger.com to coordinate removal of the scam cams.