Slaying fuels debate over speed cameras in Arizona

The debate over the first statewide speed camera enforcement program in the nation has reached a boiling point following the fatal shooting of a camera operator.

Critics of Arizona’s program condemned the killing but vow they’ll continue to fight what they call unfair and overly intrusive government. Supporters of the program say camera opponents have inflamed the public, and that the speed cameras have made highways safer.

Doug Georgianni, 51, was killed on April 19, as he operated a speed-enforcement van on a Phoenix freeway. Thomas Patrick Destories, a 68-year-old Phoenix man, is being held in Maricopa County jail on a first-degree murder charge in the death. He has declined to comment.

Authorities haven’t said what they believe the motive might be, but said the two men had never met. Many simply assume the killing was the latest and most extreme backlash against Arizona’s photo-enforcement program.

Arizonans have used sticky notes, Silly String and even a pickax to sabotage the cameras since September when they began snapping photos of highway speeders driving 11 mph or more over the speed limit.

State lawmakers have proposed two bills to do away with the cameras, and three separate citizens groups are targeting them in initiatives for the 2010 ballot.

“The conversation on everyone’s mind in Arizona is the photo radar killing. That’s what everyone is talking about,” said Shawn Dow, a volunteer with the citizens group CameraFRAUD.com.

CameraFRAUD.com is the largest and most organized of the groups going after the cameras. Its initiative would ban photo-enforcement cameras throughout Arizona, including those in the statewide program and those run by individual municipalities, such as red light cameras in Tempe.

Dow said the Arizona Department of Public Safety and camera operator RedFlex Traffic Systems Inc. put Georgianni in danger by having him in a marked law enforcement vehicle even though he was a civilian.

“They’re putting these people in marked police vehicles that are civilians that have no training, no way to defend themselves,” Dow said. “We should have trained police officers – cops, not cameras.”

DPS spokesman Lt. James Warriner said the department is working with RedFlex to decide how the vans will operate in the future, and that they may be unmanned.

The speed vans were pulled from Arizona freeways Monday; fixed cameras are still operating.

Warriner said critics have blamed his agency for the killing “when all we’re doing is administering a program that was mandated by state Legislature and the former governor.

“Because of (critics’) vocalness, you could almost say they’ve led to this, too – because of their protests, the encouragement of people to strike out,” he said.

Warriner said Georgianni’s killing will not stop photo enforcement.

Karen Finley, president and chief executive officer of RedFlex, said in a statement that the company is being “deliberative and prudent” in its review of establishing criteria to redeploy mobile speed cameras. She declined to comment further.

Republican Rep. Sam Crump of Anthem, who is seeking to ban speed cameras on state highways, condemned Georgianni’s killing.

“While we don’t know at this time what the motives were for this senseless killing, many have understandably speculated that it was due to anger against the speed cameras,” he said in a statement the day after the killing. “To the extent there is any truth to that, I call on all individuals to reduce the war of words on this topic. Whatever the motives for this crime were, there is absolutely no justification for such a heinous act.”

The photo-enforcement program was launched under former Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Civil violations are punishable by a fine and surcharges totaling $181. Through Jan. 31, 34,000 motorists had paid their tickets.

Tyler Bennett, a 23-year-old Glendale resident who recently got a photo radar ticket on a Phoenix-area freeway, said he’s against the speed cameras but he was “dumbfounded” when he heard about the killing.

“That really kind of hit me, to be honest,” he said. “It’s kind of fun to dog on the whole photo radar thing, but this whole thing is completely different.”

He said he doesn’t think DPS, RedFlex or critics of photo enforcement are to blame – just the person who pulled the trigger.\

MORE HERE:|

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30436439/

Photo radar shooting suspect found

by JJ Hensley – Apr. 21, 2009 10:04 AM
The Arizona Republic

Thomas Destories knew why Phoenix police were talking to him as soon as the suspect in the murder of a photo-enforcement employee was pulled over Monday morning.

“I’m sorry, I was going to turn myself in. I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. I saw it on the news,” Destories told officers, according to a police report released Monday night.

“The gun is in the saddlebag,” Destories said. OAS_AD(‘ArticleFlex_1′)
With that, police arrested Destories, 68, on suspicion of murdering Doug Georgianni while he worked in a photo-enforcement van along Loop 101 on Sunday evening.

According to the report, a witness saw a Chevrolet Suburban, later identified as Destories’ vehicle, pull up behind Georgianni’s van about 8:45 p.m. Sunday, leaving the witness with the impression that the SUV was having trouble.

When the Suburban pulled up to a stop light at Seventh Street and Loop 101 a couple of minutes later, the witnesses realized there was no trouble and noticed the driver: a man with unkempt hair and a long moustache.

That description, along with good observation by a Department of Public Safety officer who used to live in Destories’ neighborhood, led authorities to believe Destories might be involved, according to the police report.

After officers watched Destories’ house and saw him move a Suburban matching the description of the suspected shooter’s vehicle behind his house, they arrested the Cave Creek resident.

Investigators said Georgianni was sitting behind the driver’s seat doing paperwork when the Suburban pulled up behind his van and somebody fired the shots.

The van was hit five times with large-caliber bullets, according to the report, with three of the five shots grouped in a tight pattern around the driver’s side window, near where Georgianni was seated. The shooting prompted both companies that operate photo-enforcement programs in the area to pull the mobile units from highways and roads while they reassess security measures.

Destories had an initial appearance on Monday. He could face charges of first-degree murder and is being held on a $2 million cash bond.

Fascist Governments are pushing people to the limits

PHOENIX — Police have arrested a man in connection with the fatal shooting of a photo-radar van operator Sunday night, according to the Phoenix Police Department.

According to department spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill, the department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety will hold a joint news conference Monday afternoon to announce more details of the arrest.Video footage over the noon hour showed police serving search warrants at a Phoenix home in connection with the shooting. Footage showed a vehicle similiar to the one captured by the radar van’s tape parked by the side of the house.In the meantime, photo-radar vans have been yanked off Arizona highways as DPS and Phoenix police investigate the shooting, according to Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. CEO Karen Finley.

The 911 call came into DPS at 8:52 p.m. Sunday.

DPS said the driver, Doug Georgianni, 51, was shot multiple times while sitting in the marked van parked on the eastbound side of Loop 101.Georgianni was taken to John C. Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, DPS said.DPS said Georgianni had been working for RedFlex Traffic Systems Inc. as a driver technician for three months. RedFlex is under contract with DPS to operate the photo-radar systems, which are used to catch speeders and red-light runners.”The entire Redflex family is grief-stricken for Doug and his loved ones,” Finley said. “We will continue to dedicate every resource to work with the police to help identify and apprehend the person who took Doug’s life.Phoenix police described the shooter as a white male in his 60s with a thin face, unkempt white hair and a white mustache.He was driving a two-toned white and gray 1980s-model Chevy Suburban with black rims and tires and a roof rack, police said. Investigators believe the shooter left the crime scene traveling south on Seventh Street.Police are asking anyone with information to call Silent Witness at 480-948-6377.

MORE HERE:

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2009/04/19/20090419radarvan04192009.html

http://www.kpho.com/traffic/19225588/detail.html

City of Chandler gets less than 15% of traffic-photo fines

Megan Boehnke – Feb. 13, 2009 08:20 AM
The Arizona Republic

It may be painful to write a $210 check to Chandler, courtesy of that photo of you zipping down Arizona Avenue.

But it would be a mistake to think the Police Department or anyone else in the city is raking in money from its photo-enforcement program.

After state and court fees were removed, the city brought in just more than $50,000 last fiscal year. The money is earmarked by the City Council for traffic safety programs. Less than 15 percent of the money from violators’ fines came back to the city.

Records are not available on how many photo-enforcement tickets were issued during fiscal 2008. Between November 2007 and November 2008, the city issued about 16,000 tickets for photo enforcement violations.

Money from the tickets has been spent on such items as the speed reader boards that the City Council, in 2007, decided to purchase and place in front of cameras to warn drivers how fast they’re going. The rest goes to other traffic programs such as jaywalking education, according to an April 28 City Council memo.

That revenue number compares to the $4 million generated by the state since its highway program expanded last fall, sparking fiery debate over the state’s motives for installing the cameras. That money goes to a Photo Enforcement Fund that is subject to legislative appropriation.

Since the start of the legislative session last month, numerous bills have been introduced to put an end to photo enforcement on state highways, including one that made it out of committee and is headed to a floor debate in the state House of Representatives

Although the bill would overturn the DPS program, it would not affect city-run programs, which in Chandler would include red-light and speed-on-green cameras in 12 intersections.

Police and city officials say Chandler’s programs are strictly for the safety of drivers. And although no studies have been done to show a decrease in accidents – mostly because of other variables such as an increase in population and the widening of intersections that would also influence accident numbers – anecdotally, police officers say they’re responding to fewer calls.

That is especially the case at Arizona Avenue and Warner Road, an intersection that had one of the highest accident rates, Officer Scott Williams said last month. That intersection has had a “significant decrease,” he said.

I want to move over to Pinal county, where they keep it real

Arizona County shelves speed-camera program

Lindsey Collom
The Arizona Republic
January 22, 2009

Pinal County supervisors Wednesday bid goodbye to photo enforcement.

Their vote to terminate their contract with Redflex, the company that operates the cameras, came at the recommendation of the county’s top law-enforcement official, new Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

“I’m against photo speed enforcement completely,” Babeu said, walking the three-member panel through a detailed PowerPoint presentation. “Here in Pinal, it’s failed miserably.”

Babeu said speed cameras created dangerous road conditions and offered little financial benefit for the county. He plans to boost traffic enforcement through additional manpower.

Although Pinal County’s contract with Redflex wasn’t set to expire until Feb. 20, two mobile speed cameras have not been in operation on Pinal roads since Babeu took office Jan. 1.

Glory!

Arizona Freeway Speed Camera Toppled Speed camera on Interstate 10 freeway in Arizona is knocked over mysteriously. Knocked over speed cameraOne of the dozens of the new, permanent speed cameras in use on Arizona freeways was found knocked on its side Monday on westbound Interstate 10 at 16th Street. While stuck in traffic Irwin M. Fletcher, a member of the activist group CameraFraud.com, noticed the stricken machine on the side of the freeway. He used his iPhone to document the incident before Australian camera vendor Redflex had the chance to recover its expensive ticketing hardware. “Looks as if someone got pissed off and took out some aggression on the scamera location,” Fletcher wrote. State officials have not issued a statement whether they believe the device was disabled by a deliberate attack or a hit-and-run accident. Although the speed camera in this case does not appear to have caused any direct injuries, falling photo enforcement devices have proved deadly elsewhere. In a May 2005 accident, a red light camera fell on a twenty-four-year-old woman in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The woman later died of the injuries inflicted by the camera. In May this year the camera victim’s family filed suit against Fayetteville and Dallas-based contractor Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) because they “knew or reasonably should have known that mounting a red light camera weighing approximately 300 to 600 pounds to an aluminum pole designed to ‘break away’ upon impact presented a hazard and an immediate threat of injury to drivers and passengers,” the lawsuit stated.