SAY CHEESE!
Photo Radar is Taking Your Picture

Conventional speed enforcement has its limitations. You can only pull over one vehicle at a time. This method is unproductive, slow and expensive from the government’s point of view.

Now with technology growing at a rapid pace, new and alternative methods have been created.

The old system of traffic enforcement was simply not doing the job of making the kinds of money our government is used to making.

There are just too many factors:

1. First, they have to hire the cop to pull you over. This also means the use of a police vehicle which also costs money.
2. Next, the traffic stop itself is a dangerous situation for the officer and potentially other drivers or pedestrians.
3. Third, after it’s all said and done, the driver may still end up driving away without a ticket (if the officer decides to just give a warning).
4. Lastly, during the time it takes to administer a traffic stop about a dozen other cars go by speeding... more money down the drain!

But that was then, this is now!

Introducing photo radar... the government’s latest scheme to generate more (illegal) money, all in the name of safety. Leave it to Uncle Sam to devise a plan so brilliant and lucrative, that it just may solve most cities budget problems.

Within minutes, a photo radar machine can catch dozens of speeders on a single stretch of road. These radar cameras literally do the jobs of several cops.

There’s no longer the need to actually pull people over anymore. With traffic cameras, speeding tickets are mailed directly to the home of the offender.

Talk about service!

Since its' beginning, photo radar has been proven to:

• Save police department’s time and money
• Improve conviction rates in traffic court
• Maximize city resources available for traffic enforcement
• Increase individual insurance rates
• Negatively influence driver credit reports if tickets go unpaid

The age of photo radar is in its infancy. To date, there are only a dozen or so states that employ this method of speed detection - California, Colorado, Arizona, Ohio and Washington D.C. to name a few.

However, the popularity of photo radar is growing by leaps and bounds.

States across the nation are beginning to catch on to the money making potential that photo radar has. Its relative simplicity and monetary benefits makes photo radar a good choice for many cities.

In cities that are financially strapped, photo radar gives them an immediate answer to their money misery.

Think about it: Within minutes, photo radar can clock dozens of speeding vehicles -- something that would have taken about 10 real cops to accomplish with traditional speed enforcement!

How does it work?

Photo radar, as the name suggests, is a combination of a camera coupled with a radar gun. The two work together. The radar gun is preprogrammed to function at a particular speed.

For example, if a certain street’s speed limit is 25 mph, the radar gun might be set to activate when any vehicle travels over 30 mph.

When this happens, the radar gun will instantly trigger the camera to take a picture of the entire front and back of the vehicle, including driver (and occupants) along with the front license plate.

The picture is electronically filed away and the process is carried on throughout the day and night. Hundreds of individuals will have their picture taken - courtesy of Big Brother.

The following day, a few people will gather all of the pictures that were taken and begin to examine them.

The first thing they will look for is the license plate. If it is blurry or simply unclear, the picture will be disposed of and the next one will be examined.

Once a legible license plate is found, the examiner will then look up the license plate number with the bureau of motor vehicles. The BMV will send back the name and address of the person the car is registered to.

If the name comes back as a male, the examiner will then look to see if a male is sitting behind the wheel of the car. If there is, BINGO! The examiner will then send the registered owner of the car a speeding ticket in the mail.

This process is repeated with the next picture and so on until all available photos have been examined.

What’s wrong with this system?

In almost every case, an outside company that specializes in photo radar technology would be hired to furnish and maintain the photo radar units.

The company either gets a set amount or gets paid when the city receives the fines that originated from any of the photo radar units installed throughout the city. The profits are split with the company.

Also, did you know that the person evaluating the photos usually is not a government employee, but rather works for the company that supply and maintain the photo radar units?

Many cities cite safety as a primary reason why they use photo radar. However, it’s obvious even to a retarded ape what’s wrong with this method of speed enforcement.

First, the speeding vehicle was never pulled over to begin with. So, technically there was never any safety enforcement. If you allow a car to speed and mail him a ticket two weeks later, where’s the safety in that?

Secondly, sending a ticket to the registered owner is hardly fair when it is not proven if in fact he or she was the one driving the car at the time. Just because one owns the vehicle doesn’t mean they were driving it.

Last but not least, since 99% of the time the person mailing you your fine is NOT a government employee, it hardly sounds as if this is really done for our safety. Especially when you consider they are getting a percentage from the ticket fines.

All of this just goes to show you the true motive behind this sinister means of traffic enforcement. No one is thinking about our safety.

It’s all about money, money, and then more MONEY!

What you can do to protect yourself

If you inspected Will Foreman's SUV, you might notice how clean and shiny his Maryland license plates are. But you probably wouldn't detect the clear glossy coating sprayed on them eight months ago to thwart traffic cameras from snapping readable photos of his tags.

"It must work," says Foreman. He has not received a traffic camera ticket since using a $29.99 spray called PhotoBlocker.

Foreman, owner of an auto supply store, also coated the plates of his eight delivery trucks. He says they previously drew $1,200 in photo-radar fines but none since the application. And he has had no complaints from customers who have bought about 700 cans of the spray at his shop. "If it didn't work, we would've heard about it," he says.

Furman Eldridge bought Photo Blocker a year ago as "a defense mechanism”. He has enough faith in it that he says he gave a can to his pastor.

"I've always been a law-abiding citizen," he says. "You don't want people speeding, but I don't think it should flash you if you're just going five miles over the limit."

Cheaper than radar detectors (which are illegal in the District and Virginia), sprays such as Photo Blocker, are advertised as reflecting the flash back at automated cameras to overexpose the license plate.

The photo is said to look like a picture taken with a flash in front of a mirror -- glared.

You can get a can of Photo Blocker at PhantomPlate.com.







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