Tt post 06july2017

quote=212761

I don't understand. What does that have to do with the city taking money from citizens with a speed trap?

One of the great, well-thought-out arguments on the camera subject is simply to drive the speed limit. Well, people did that, and they still got ticketed by an abusive government-police setup.

Welcome to Toledo, Ohio where people can get ticketed for obeying the law.

In my opinion, it makes no difference if the speed trap was accidental or intentional. This is what happens when an overreaching government is desperate for revenue.

If accidental, how does a police officer not know where a school zone begins and ends? What about signage? This seems so basic. The rest of us are expected to know and obey the laws, but apparently, it's okay if the police don't.

I find it hard to believe that this was an accidental speed trap. And did this speed trap exist longer than one day?

Many people don't have the time nor the desire to fight the city, therefore they pay the fines and move on with their lives.

Thanks to the Blade's reporting, usually by Ignazio Messina when the topic is city government, it's unknown whether the city returned the money that it nefariously obtained.

Councilman Rob Ludeman, who is running for re-election this year, said the Feb. 1 tickets — issued with the city’s handheld speed camera devices — were dismissed because neither he nor his wife, Elaine Ludeman, were in a school zone.

“The picture showed obviously I was two and a half blocks away when he clocked me going the speed limit for where I was,” Mr. Ludeman said. “It was quite a while away from the Byrnedale school zone.”

Thirty-eight people, including Mr. Ludeman and his wife, were ticketed at that site that morning, starting at 8:51 a.m. until 9:09 a.m.

Mr. and Mrs. Ludeman’s tickets — each costing $120 — were dismissed without the couple appearing for one of the regular appeals hearings held downtown at One Government Center.

“The reason Councilman Ludeman contacted me is because he knows me as chief,” Chief Kral said.

[Ludeman said,] "I showed the ticket to Chief Kral and the officer was ordered to move back 150 yards. I was not guilty of anything and the ticket was revoked."

But were the speeding tickets fixed for the other 36 motorists who got them for speeding at the same time in the same place?

Mr. Ludeman said he assumed everyone else who received tickets that morning near the school would have had them dismissed. He said the city should go back and refund those 18 people and dismiss the rest.

Yeah, that's helpful. A city councilperson making assumptions.

More about Toledo government's revenue-generating program that's fictitiously advertised as a safety issue:

Of the 29,615 handheld tickets issued between Jan. 1 and May 26, only 370 were dismissed; 5,701 were too new to be challenged by the vehicle owners; 6,103 were listed at “full default,” and 641 were sent to collections. The majority of the remaining tickets were paid.

Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson budgeted $2.3 million from fines this year generated by handheld speed cameras. The city collected $1.84 million by the end of May, putting it on track to collect more than $4.3 million by the end of 2017 if the same numbers of speeders are nailed with those tickets monthly.

With the way things spread on the internet, it wouldn't surprise me if word gets around about Toledo's insidious gotcha attitude. And it wouldn't surprise me if the camera revenue drops below expectations over the second half of 2017 as people become more aware.

That's the goal after all. Safe driving. The city won't mind if revenue fails to meet expectations. But obviously, the city has a backup plan: speed traps.