Ah ohh! NJ may get cameras to catch NJ traffic violators.
Jan 13th, 2008 | By Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. | Category: Blogs, Criminal & TrafficLast week, the NJ Assembly initially passed a bill allowing local towns to install traffic cameras at NJ intersections. We are not sure what violations that local police can charge you with, other than a red light violations.
Philadelphia has done this at many intersections through the city, including the Roosevelt Boulevard. The Roosevelt Boulevard is constantly on America’s top ten most dangerous intersections list. This has worked in many other places to curb red light violations and deadly car accidents. From what we have heard, in Pennsylvania, PennDot does not issue motor vehicle violation points for traffic camera tickets. Perhaps NJ will do the same?
As many of you agree, NJ is a heavily regulated state. I would think that NJ would have already installed traffic monitoring cameras at its intersections. A previous attempt to pass a similar bill never made law in NJ.
What do you think about the installation of traffic cameras on NJ roads? Will it lead to a slippery slope? Will we have traffic cameras monitoring speed next? What’s next?
The author of this Law Blog, Bucks County PA & Mercer County, NJ criminal attorney, Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. of Saile & Saile LLP, Attorneys-at-Law practices both New Jersey and Pennsylvania criminal, traffic violations, and DUI/DWI/DAI law. Check out our website for DUI penalties. We handle all NJ Municipal Court cases including DUI in the following NJ Municipal Courts: Hopewell Township, Ewing Township, Trenton, Lawrence Township, Hamilton, Pennington, and other Mercer County, Burlington County, and Camden County, NJ courts. We also handle lower bucks county DUI and traffic violation cases in the following towns: Bensalem, Southampton, Richboro, Newtown, Levittown, Langhorne, Doylestown, Warminster, Trevose, Feasterville, Warrington, Bristol, Fallsington, Yardley, New Hope, Holland, Washington Crossing, PA, and other Bucks County courts. We handle DUI cases in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery County, PA. We are located just outside of Philadelphia in lower Bucks County.
I do not lik eth eidea of cameras for red lights.
First of all , they will not just be used for red lights. They will be widely used as an investigative tool for police , to track eoples movements.
I can think of hundreds of examples off the top of my head. Lets say the police are inverstigating a person who claims to have been home as an alibi, but the traffic camera at the intersection at the end of the street they live, show them leasving their home in a car, then coming back 3 hours later, the window for the suspected crime.
The State should call these cameras what they are, another intrusion by big brother to watch our every move.
just another way to raise more money for the state. i don’t have a problem with these cameras installed at traffic lights, i used to live off the boulevard in philly, so i’m used to them. although i’m very curious where the increased revenue will go. if it goes toward road improvements, that’s fine. or why couldn’t this replace some of the ridiculous increases in tolls that corzine just approved. i always assume the worst, that this will fund pensions or something else that is out of control. but as you say, if this is the slippery slope that leads to cameras monitoring speed, that really scares me.
Conversley, these cameras theoreticaly can be used as a defense tool.
I was puilled over for speeding and got a dui on a highway with traffic lights. Lets say we can show the time traveled between the 2 lights on the highway, taking the distance between the 2 lights, and doing simple math to determine speed.
It would then clearly show no probable cause for the stop and the DUI must be thrown out based on the officer lieing about the stop.
I say, that if they are going to have these cameras in use, the people of the State must have acess to the footage at will in discovery, in any case, for any set of lights or cameras they want….. making it not just a police tool, but a defense tool.
I belive the revenue fromk fines resulting from regular traffic tickets because of these cameras would go directtly to the individual muncipalities.
I do not think the revenue will be be that great.
Although, the State may also see a piece of it thriough the no pint reduction tickets which have mandatory Sate surcharges paid through the Court to the State.
Just a drop in the bucket I think and would like to see the cost of theprogram versus the money generated over the next 5 years and do a financial analysis.
We simply do not have enough information at this time to do a cost analyysis.
The only real discusion right now on this issue can be in the arena of “big brother” watching us.
Do not for a minute think these cameras are not going to put into high crime areas to monitor activitiy.
i don’t see this as a privacy violation, since they are placed at intersections in public places. trust me, i’m just as wary of big brother as you are jim, so i wouldn’t support this initiative blindly. but i’m afraid nj is too far along to reverse the trend towards the nanny state.
thats ok , but i think as i stated, that all citizens should have the right to the video from the cameras, afterall, is does belong to us.
Jim I do not think these cameras will be recording video. I think there will be cameras taking still shots when triggered by some kind of motion detector synched with the red light.
I predict and guess that the cameras as you have described above with not be 100 percent right 100 percent of the time.
It will be intersteing to see what happens when an innocent person fights this for all it is worth.
The problem with Roosevelt Boulevard and why it is so dangerous is all of the cross over lanes. If they did away with that, the road safety would improve ten-fold.
Traffic cameras are effective, becuase if the driver is aware that they are there, the driver is less likely to run a red light or to speed. I have seen them in action in Arizona for years and they do work. Personally, I would not want them to come to Pennsylvania because I like to speed and if the cop isn’t around then oh well…and they typically aren’t around when you need them to be anyway. So I am not in favor of them being utilized in Pennsylvania, but the use of them is a proven and effective deterent to habitual traffic law violators.