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Unpaid tickets from traffic cameras could cost drivers their ride

By Ashley Meeks
Las Cruces Sun News
05/04/2011

LAS CRUCES, TX. -- If you've got one of the 15,000 traffic camera tickets the city says remain unpaid, you might want to keep an eye on your car.

Police will begin seizing or putting boots on vehicles whose owners have unpaid tickets from the five Redflex Traffic Systems cameras around town, the Las Cruces Police Department announced Tuesday.

LCPD Police Chief Richard Williams wasn't available to comment on the new enforcement action, but LCPD spokesman Dan Trujillo pointed out that nothing about the ordinance itself was new.

"The Las Cruces Police Department doesn't set or make the rules," Trujillo said. "We're only enforcing the rules and this ordinance was passed more than two years ago and it's been enforced for two years and the people who have accumulated citations have been afforded every opportunity to either pay them, nominate the driver who may have been driving the vehicle at the time or they could have requested a hearing to appeal the violation. And if one of those three options has not been exercised by the person who received the citation, this is the next step."

While the city has collected $2.9 million in fines since April 2009, keeping $741,000 for projects like purchasing about 16 new police vehicles, 34 percent of the tickets haven't been paid, adding up to $1.5 million owed, according to city comptroller Pat Degman.

"The purpose of the program is not to generate funds," Degman said. "The benefit is really the behavior change."

In addition to getting drivers to slow down and watch out for yellow lights, the city also wants drivers to be responsible about paying their fines.

After getting fined, vehicle owners have 35 days to pay, request an appeal hearing or identify the driver who was at fault. If that doesn't happen, under city ordinance, vehicles can be seized for 90 days - potentially racking up three months of impound and storage fees - and if the debt still isn't paid after that, the city can take the car for good.

One ticketed driver, NMSU assistant education professor Cristobal Rodriguez, said Tuesday's announcement about enforcement "definitely will be part of the discussion" as his challenge to the constitutionality of the ordinance goes forward in court.

Rodriguez's car was snapped going 48 mph in a 35 mph zone in October 2009. He disputed the ticket, but paid the ticket when it was sent to a collection agency. His case was recently sent to the New Mexico Court of Appeals by 3rd Judicial District Judge Manuel Arrieta.

The city has argued that its ordinance is constitutional.

"This is adding more evidence now, on how punitive (the current system is) and, at the same time, the concern of whether there is due process laid out for registered owners," Rodriguez said, reacting to the city's announcement Tuesday.

If the cameras are really just about safety, Rodriguez says there are better ways to accomplish that goal - like adding seconds onto yellow lights.

"I support the idea that we should look at how we can make our streets safer - there are definitely multiple ways to do that, as well as more ethical ways and legal ways as opposed to just taking pictures of vehicles and assuming a number of things ... I'm in support of making our intersections safer," he said. "I'm in support of means that get us there that are not necessarily punitive."

Three intersections are monitored by camera traffic for speeding and red light violations: Lohman Avenue at Telshor Boulevard, Lohman Avenue at Walnut Street, and Valley Drive at Avenida de Mesilla.

A total of 4,636 tickets have been issued just this year, according to LCPD.

Photo enforcement fines are $100 each, but 24 vehicle owners have nine or more unpaid citations for speeding or running a light, according to LCPD. Those 24 violators owe the city $25,514 in fines, with the worst violator owing the city $1,875 in fines and fees, for 15 unpaid citations.

Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462.

Comments

Wait for a mistake of picking up a car that HAS paid but picked up anyway by mistake. I paid my ticket for running a red light at 2:30 in the morning. No one was around and the light would not change. I sat there 3 minutes and decided enough was enough. Ran it not knowing about the camera. Oh well I paid it anyway. They come for my car by mistake and it'll be a big lawsuit. They will make a mistake. What government agency doesn't?

I recieved a collection notice from a company in PA stating that I owed them money for an unpaid camera ticket from valley dr. I never recieved anything prior to the collection notice. As directed by the letter, I sent a certified response asking for a copy of the citation and photo verification of the vehicle. That was 7 months ago and I have recieved nothing from them. If the Mayor wants my 100 bucks so badly then I wish he would have the b a l l s to come knock on my door with some kind of proof and ask me for it instead of having his rediflex puppeteers send me unsubstantiated collection notices or threating to send the cops to impound my vehicle.

85% of TX drivers refuse to appear in court or pay traffic scamera tickets to foreign corporations in Australia and Communist China.

"It is extremely easy to beat this type of ticket in court. Your easiest defense is to simply throw the ticket away. If it does not come with a return receipt that requires a signature, there is no proof that you actually got the ticket and they cannot prosecute you on that."
-Norman G. Fernandez, attorney at law, free ebook How to Beat a Speeding Ticket - Photo RADAR

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

No court has jurisdiction unless personal service of process is served upon the defendant. Wheel clamps are illegal without a court order, so wheel clamps are "abandoned property" and a donation to the vehicle owner who may cut them off at will. Towing and impounding a car without a valid court order is felony car theft. Deadly force may be used to make a citizen's arrest for any felony. Cops are arrested and sent to prison every day.

Google the Battle of Athens TN to see when you are legally allowed to shoot all cops and city council members, dynomite a police dept, make citizens arrests of every cop and city councilor in town and take them into custody, make yourself the new police chief, then get rewarded by US Congress and the White House.

Or just sue a class action and put the city and cops into bankruptcy court, and forclose on its govt and private a$$ets. Happens every day. That's what US Code Section 1983 Ku Klux Klan Act is for.

Or just shoot the traffic scameras, as cops confessed to doing in Knoxville TN. Google Clifford Clark, who got all charges dismissed for shooting a traffic scamera, 1 week afte subpoena of a Knox County deputy sheriff to testify that a Knox Co deputy confessed to shooting a redlight camera. All charges were dismissed against Clark for pointing a shotgun at an undercover deputy who broke into his house on a bogus warrant, and got all his guns returned last week.