O’Scanlon Testifies Against “Use Our Kids as Pawns to Enrich Corrupt Companies” Legislation

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) testified before the Assembly Education Committee and the Assembly Transportation Committee this morning, imploring his colleagues on the committees to kill legislation that, if passed, would rip off motorists for the benefit of corrupt companies and greedy municipal official.

At the Education Committee, O’Scanlon, the Republican nominee to replace Senator Joe Kyrillos in the Senate next year, testified against bill A3798, a bill that would let the same companies that ran New Jersey’s now defunct Red Light Camera Program monitor school bus cameras and share the revenue generated by tickets with the municipalites.  O’Scanlon said the bill would allow for-profit traffic enforcement at the expense of innocent drivers.

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O’Scanlon celebrates 1st anniversary of the demise of Red Light Cameras in New Jersey

Even with his grimace, O’Scanlon is celebrating

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon is reminding New Jersey residents that the end of the Red Light Camera program, which occurred last December 16th, is one of the many things to celebrate this time of year.

“December 16 marks the one year anniversary of the termination of New Jersey’s failed experiment with for-profit traffic enforcement.  It is a blessed day for New Jersey drivers who no longer have to fear having their pockets picked by the predatory, corrupt and dishonest companies who operated the systems.

We proved in New Jersey – where the systems showed no safety benefit but cost drivers tens of millions of dollars – that red light cameras are merely a way for camera operators to legally steal from drivers.  If yellow lights are timed fairly there aren’t enough violators to even cover the systems’ costs – never mind generate profits for the municipal officials complicit in the scheme. Properly set yellow lights and properly engineered intersections also lead to genuine safety benefits – unlike completely ineffective red light and speed cameras.

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Red-light camera bottom line: Only cops should write tickets | Di Ionno

Government -sanctioned theft. That’s the phrase state Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) has used like a ubiquitous bumper sticker to rail against red-light cameras. A story by njadvancemedia reporter Bill Wichert shows just how much “theft” was going on in the city of Newark. In five years, Newark collected $34 million from about 400,000 tickets doled out… Read the rest of this entry »

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Red-light cameras generated $16M for Newark, $13M for traffic company

NEWARK — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Essex County legislators have been pushing for a renewal of New Jersey’s red light camera program on the grounds it reduces car crashes and promotes public safety. But the cameras also have generated millions in fines paid to the city, the state and the company that maintained the devices.… Read the rest of this entry »

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Red Light Camera Requiem

New Jersey’s State Government and 23 of its municipal governments will recover a morsel of integrity at midnight tonight when state sanctioned theft in the form of red light cameras cease to operate at 73 intersections.  New Jersey’s Red Light Camera Program, authorized as a five year pilot during the lame duck session of the 2006-2008 legislature and signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine, expires tonight.

The fact that the Red Light Camera Program has not been renewed is due in large measure to the efforts of Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and his staff.  Their efforts have been heroic.

O’Scanlon and Co. have been relentless in monitoring the Red Light Camera Program and telling the truth about it. They have hired independent experts to investigate complaints and document fraud within the program.  They have sorted through data that has regularly been obfuscated by the red light camera companies (and bureaucrats friendly to them) to reflect improved safety conditions at RCL intersections where in fact conditions had often worsened.   They have worked hard in getting the word out about the program’s failure and corruption. They have countered expensive advertising campaigns by the red light camera companies and countered expensive lobbyists working the halls of the Statehouse, without the benefit of the profits the red light camera companies stole from the motoring public to fund their efforts.

In thwarting the Red Light Camera Program’s renewal, O’Scanlon has proved himself to be “the real deal”….a leader who fights for the right thing because it is the right thing. He is an example of what a “public servant” should be.

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As red-light cameras go dark, was it a boon for safety or a bust?

What happened to Al Lovey of Wharton might be the poster child for what critics say went wrong with the state red-light camera program. Lovey said he was making a left turn at a green light at the camera-monitored intersection at Market Street and Route 21 in Newark when he stopped in mid-turn to let a… Read the rest of this entry »

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Christie inclined to nix Red Light Cameras

Governor Chris Christie said that he his inclined to not renew New Jersey’s Red Light Camera program when the five year experiment expires in December.

Speaking at a press conference in Sea Bright yesterday afternoon, the governor feigned surprise that Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon is opposed to the RLC program.  O’Scanlon has waged a ferocious multi-year campaign against the cameras, producing independent data showing that the cameras increase accidents at intersections where they are installed, that they are often timed to entrap drivers and alleging that they are nothing more than a money grab on the part of the companies that operate them and the municipalities that deploy them.

Christie said he has not studied the issue to the extent that O’Scanlon has, “but I will, ” he said,  “I have some concerns.  At this point I am not inclined to allow them to continue, but I haven’t made a final decision yet.”

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O’Scanlon: Redflex Indictment Should Surprise No one

NJ101.5 photo

Karen Finley, former CEO of Redflex Traffic Systems Inc, one of two Red Light Camera companies operating in New Jersey, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago last week on bribery charges.

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, New Jersey’s fiercest opponent of Red Light Cameras, says that is not a surprise:
“Well this is a shocking turn of events, said no one! If cameras actually increased safety no one would have to bribe anyone for business – we’d all be lining up!  How any public entity can continue to do business with Redflex in particular, but really any of these companies pitching these ineffective, thieving cameras is beyond me.  Is the lure of fast cash so strong we have decided that morality doesn’t matter?  We now have multiple pieces of evidence of corruption reaching the highest levels of one of the two companies operating these cameras in New Jersey.  Both companies are guilty of blatantly lying about their products and misrepresenting data.”

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MORE CRASH, MORE CASH AT RED LIGHT CAMERA INTERSECTIONS

ALMOST $5 MILLION IN PISCATAWAY

By John Day, WatchDogWire

Piscataway’s red light camera program closed out March issuing more tickets than the township’s total population, while also nearing the $5-million mark in total fines issued. Those projections are based on an internal, township document obtained through New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

The internal document, titled “Township of Piscataway: Monthly Analysis of Red Light Camera,” chronicles by month the number of citations, revenue produced, and recipients of the cameras’ cash. In its first 27 months of operation, November 2011 through February 2014, Piscataway’s photo-ticketing program produced a total of 55,396 citations and $4,710,415 in ticket revenue.

Citation revenue from Piscataway’s red light cameras is divvied between several recipients. Through February 2014, Piscataway Township has received about 32% of the program’s total revenue, amounting to $1,527,146.  Same period earnings for Piscataway’s photo-ticket vendor American Traffic Solutions (ATS) was $2,153,908, 46% of the proceeds. The State of New Jersey and Middlesex County received 22% of the haul, at $637,054 and $392,811 respectively.

Crash Data Revealed

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Support for red-light cameras declines in NJ, poll by AAA finds

Support for red-light cameras declines in NJ, poll by AAA finds (via NJ.com)

The more New Jersey motorists nabbed by red-light cameras, the less support the automated traffic cops have in the state, a poll by AAA has found. In 2007, before the cameras were installed at intersections across New Jersey, 77 percent of those surveyed…

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