Cities Removing Red-Light Cameras To Increase Traffic Ticket Revenues

Traffic cameras are so effective at preventing dangerous driving that cops the nation over are scrambling to get rid of them to restore revenues gathered from issuing tickets.

One report, from MSNBC, highlights Dallas, Texas, the latest city where police and city officials are openly encouraging crime to boost the bottom line:

"Red light cameras do reduce accidents. That is a good thing ... But they do it by reducing red light violations, by as much as 29 percent from month to month at particularly busy Dallas intersections. ... City
Manager Mary Suhm estimated last week that the city would fall short by more than $4 million. So last week, the city turned off about a quarter of the least profitable cameras, saying it couldn’t justify the cost of running them."

Expecting drivers to continue their bad habits, city fathers hoped the cameras would become an automated citation-issuing moneyspinner, generating millions of dollars a year. Unfortunately, local drivers responded by simply driving legally, making the cameras an effective deterrent but an ineffective investment.

This deadly game of enterprise is part of a pattern. Charlotte and
Fayetteville, N.C., recently disabled their traffic cameras when the state insisted they spend the revenues on schools instead of dumping it into general funds.

Police forces are not only profiting from crime that it's ostensibly their duty to prevent, but are becoming bluntly honest about it. The cameras work just fine, but isn't something wrong with this picture?

(Photo from speedcam.co.uk. In Britain, the police leave it to irate drivers to get rid of traffic cameras)