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Government authorities fighting back against camera damage

Speed cameras and by extension, red light cameras, aren't popular. Granted, people who get ticketed by them generally have earned it by breaking the law. However, that hasn't kept them from resenting the presence of the machines, which has led to numerous incidents of speed camera vandalism. Will you be in the market to sell or purchase a new or used Ford Ranger Spokane WA? If this sounds like you, find out more on our websites at CarDealExpert.com!

Using camcorders

When Juvenal wrote the phrase “qui custodiet e custodes,” meaning “who watches the watchers,” preventing camera vandalism is not what he had in mind. However, that's what police in Prince George County, Maryland, have resorted to, according to the Washington Post.

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Criminal behavior is never acceptable, even if most people do not like speed cameras anyway. Police have had to install the cameras to view the speed cameras to be able to hopefully stop the criminal acts of destroying the cameras.

Citizens are not happy with speed cameras in Maryland and Washington D.C., according to NBC News, which is why there have been many incidents of vandalism. There have been six cameras damaged, two getting hit twice, in Prince George County, and Baltimore County has seen eight occurrences since 2010 when it first started.

Payment of the cameras

The public is responsible for maintaining the cameras through taxes. In some counties, the vendor is responsible for it. Much of the time, fixing the speed cameras will just cost more money for taxpayers since a bank or car loan broker does not pay for the cameras. They cost about the same as a vehicle since each camera costs $30,000. That is a ton of cash to catch speeders.

Camera damage occurrences contain cameras being shot with marbles, lenses being spray painted over and even shot. Worse still, according to the Baltimore Sun, some of the speed cameras are mobile units, housed in a van. Many of those have ruined also, such as one incident where a male walked up to the van and smashed the windscreen with a hammer, while brandishing a shotgun. It was in front of the van's driver.

There was one person in Washington D.C. that put orange “X” marks on all poles with the cameras on them, so drivers would be able to see them, according to WUSA-9.

Unruliness or too much Government?

It's not confined just to Maryland and Washington, D.C.; as the Baltimore Sun points out, speed camera vandalism has been recorded in other districts. Likewise, red light camera damage has been noticed also. For instance, in 2010, according to AOL Autos, vigilantes in Nassau County, New York, spray painted over a number of red light camera lenses. That same year in Seattle, Wash., according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, thieves removed a camera from its mooring atop a traffic light.

In 2007, Clifford Clark III in TN shot a red light camera with a rifle, but charges were dropped in 2009, and he did not face punishment.

People shouldn't speed or run red lights; it is breaking the law, after all. Similarly, they may deserve tickets from speed cameras. On the other hand, Chinese emperor Laozi in the “Tao Te Ching” likened governing to frying a fish; too much poking ruins it. People do not like the notion of Big Brother always peering over their shoulders.

Sources

Washington Post

NBC News

Baltimore Sun

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Arthur Scrimshaw | 11 years ago
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