Originally Posted by
urbanknight
... but the thing I don't understand is that red light cameras are supposedly taking a picture of the crime in progress (they even stamp the picture with the time and how long the light has been red), so I once again don't understand your objection to it.
...
That doesn't mean it's not still a money making scheme and it doesn't mean the system is fair, but that is my experience so far.
I'm opposed to Red light cameras not because they're video / photo evidence.
I'm opposed to them as traffic enforcement method because they remove the element of judgement from the process.
However, I'm more strongly opposed to them on a much larger scale because until/unless we have constitutional protection from the misuse of electronic surveillance gathered without a court order supported by an established probable cause (ie a warrant), the evil far outweighs the good.
I'm also opposed not to most traffic enforcement, rather I'm opposed to the METHOD of most traffic enforcement. Traffic enforcement is almost
never about safety. Rather it is the application of a rather arbitrary set of rules to generate revenue.
If the goal was actual safety, enforcement would have an entirely different approach, starting with the entire approach taken in training and deploying officers.