The USDOT, Speed Cameras, and Automated Corruption: NMA E-Newsletter #683

It didn’t take long after Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Transportation Secretary, introduced his department’s 42-page National Roadway Safety Strategy for people to grasp the importance of a tiny sentence buried in Note 3 on Page 28 of the report: “Promote speed safety cameras as a proven safety countermeasure.” Protestations emanated from as far away as the […]
2021: The Year Flock Safety License Plate Readers Exploded Across the Country

By guest writer Joe Cadillic, founder of the MassPrivatel Blog 2021 will also go down as the year police/Flock Safety license plate readers exploded across the country. One major development that went overlooked by the mass media is Flock Safety’s role in the ever-expanding network of police license plate readers. From January 2021-December 2021, law […]
Crime Isn’t the Only Thing That Doesn’t Pay

By NMA President Gary Biller Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in October 2021 as NMA E-Newsletter #668. If you would like to subscribe to the weekly one-topic newsletter that comes to your inbox on Sunday mornings, please click Here. Care to hazard a guess on how much money the city of Los Angeles […]
A Driver’s License as a Convenience for Whom?: NMA E-Newsletter #677

If you drive, you likely have a physical license indicating you passed a test and can legally drive on the nation’s roadways. After the September 11th attack 20 years ago, driver’s licenses became a primary form of identification if you wanted to fly domestically. Now, a driver’s license is once again being asked to do […]
Crime Isn’t the Only Thing That Doesn’t Pay: NMA E-Newsletter #668

Care to hazard a guess on how much money the city of Los Angeles has raked in from traffic and parking enforcement during their last five fiscal years, which end each June 30th? If your estimate is more than half a billion dollars, you are getting warm. During those five years, Los Angeles collected more […]
The Legal Obliteration of Due Process

Editor’s Note: This post first appeared as NMA E-Newsletter #642. If you would like to subscribe to this weekly one-topic newsletter, click HERE to subscribe. Coercion is an ugly word, but lawmakers have been known to use it as a blunt weapon to force compliance by the very people they represent. The latest and all-too-blatant […]
Speed Camera Games Played for Profits in Ohio: NMA E-Newsletter #650

When will Ohio municipalities ever learn? The Ohio Supreme Court has been working overtime on automated enforcement cases brought by motorists against cities and townships across the state. Justice would be better served if the state prohibited ticket cameras altogether. The difficulty is that the larger cities in Ohio have home-rule authority, i.e., they set […]
The Legal Obliteration of Due Process: NMA E-Newsletter #642

Coercion is an ugly word, but lawmakers have been known to use it as a blunt weapon to force compliance by the very people they represent. The latest and all-too-blatant example of legislative intimidation is contained within California Senate Bill 111. While this bill is about the use of school bus automated enforcement, a topic […]
Drive 55 Everywhere . . . Or Less

Speed limits are about to become limitless as in, whatever those who set them say they are. This has always been true, to an extent in that all speed limits are, to a degree, arbitrary. People are subject to a ticket, i.e., being extorted by armed government workers, acting on behalf of the government simply […]
Officials use the COVID-19 Crisis to Create Statewide Vehicle Surveillance Programs Run by Rekor Systems

By Joe Cadillic, Cowriter for NMA’s Street Surveillance Blog and Editor of the MassPrivatel Blog Cash-strapped states are using COVID as an excuse to create AI-driven vehicle recognition or license plate reader surveillance programs. As Rekor Systems President/CEO Robert Berman proudly boasts on the video, “…because our technology works so well for vehicle recognition, we do […]