[Politech] Firsthand account of Chapel Hill and red light cam fight [priv]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Tue Feb 03 2004 - 20:06:10 PST

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    Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 15:20:33 -0500 (EST)
    From: Paul Jones <pjones@private>
    To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>
    Subject: Re: [Politech] Chapel Hill reconsiders red-light cameras [priv]
    In-Reply-To: <6.0.0.22.2.20040203134413.0298b3a8@private>
    Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0402031514540.21856-100000@private>
    
    my wife was one of the council persons who voted to oust the lights. Will
    Raymond is the hero here. there are a lot of stories out, but of
    particular interest to readers will be how ACS handled their astroturf
    campaign which is pretty well described in this article by Fiona Morgan
    http://indyweek.com/durham/current/triangles.htm
    
    [a couple of interesting excerpts]
    
    "When Councilwoman Dorothy Verkerk had an information session last week to
    defend Chapel Hill's red light camera system, she came armed with free
    videos, pencils, coasters, pens with plastic signal lights at the top, and
    posters featuring sports stars, free to all comers. Backing her up was the
    Washington-based public relations group that had produced all those
    freebies, the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running, and Affiliated
    Computer Systems, the Dallas-based information technology firm that runs
    the cameras."
    
    [if you were a stock holder in ACS, what would you say about this?]
    
    "I don't care about making money," said Joe Clark, chief operating
    officer of ACS, when  asked at a public meeting Saturday about the revenue
    ACS has collected from Chapel Hill tickets. "It's a safety program."
    
    if politech readers would like more, we have plenty. the orchestrated show
    by acs and their flacks was amazing.
    
    ==========================================================================
                                  Paul Jones
      "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." Alasdair Gray
                         http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/
       pjones@private   voice: (919) 962-7600     fax: (919) 962-8071
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    To: declan@private
    From: me@private
    Subject: RE: [Politech] Chapel Hill reconsiders red-light
    X-Sent-From: me@private
    Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 15:56:01 -0500 (EST)
    X-Mailer: Web Mail 5.6.0-2_sol28
    
    Many jursidictions have rejected red light cameras and photo
    radar. Most recently, the state of Hawaii rejected cameras
    after they were put in place for just a few months.  Earlier
    than that, The New Jersey legislature banned them. The state
    of Alaska rejected them by referendum, court rulings and by
    a vote of the legislature.
    
    In other words, a lot of jurisdictions have come to their
    senses.
    
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    Reply-To: <admin@private>
    From: mail@private (admin)
    To: "'Declan McCullagh'" <declan@private>
    Cc: <ftcoptout@private>
    Subject: RE: [Politech] Chapel Hill reconsiders red-light cameras [priv]
    Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 20:12:54 -0500
    
     >I've seen several Politech articles on RLCs.  It
     >appears, at least if you believe ACS, that Chapel
     >Hill, NC is the first community to reject RLCs.
    
    The State of NJ rejected the speed cameras  I think it was in the early-mid
    90's when the proposals were put forth and rejected.  Not sure if the RLC's
    were ever considered.
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