Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

That's my point

You are right... a camera pointed at your home 24 - 7 is indeed an invasion of privacy. But personally I'd welcome a concerned citizen to take a photo of someone breaking the law on my property because that photo is going to be used to prosecute and (hopefully) deter the next fool that tries the same thing.

Simply stated, these cameras are just a step in the direction of enforcing the law. I agree that there are great many things that need to get done in Pickerington. This is one of them, so let's check it off the list.

I'd propose that we all meet at Bob Evans for breakfast in order to dicuss these things in person. We can send the tab to the Mayors Office.

Genetic Problem

Tory,

You yell at oncoming traffic because of the Roshon DNA in your blood. It's an involuntary response....I should know.

Genetics

So true...

Take your time

I think before you all rush to get on the Fix band wagon to get cameras at the Pickerington intersections you should consider a few facts and not take the word of the ''Company.''

In a City of Pickerington traffic study in 2005 it was found that there were 48 crashes at the intersection of 256 and Refugee Roads per year. That is an intersection that handles over 30,000 cars everyday. That is a crash every two weeks. In that study it showed 8 accidents as ''T-Bone'' or angle and 15 as rear end type per year. How much will these cameras fix? How many were caused by ice or snow?

The second point of bringing in revenues. I think if the city is only going to get maybe $25 per ticket will the officer in question who must write the ticket be doing this on a volunteer basis? Clearly once you see a vehicle on camera run the red light you more than likely will not have any other data to see any circumstances that may mitigate the ticket. If my car runs a red light and I can prove I was in Florida that day then how can you charge me with running the light? My point is that not all caught will be ticketed. So if the officer is required to write the ticket and send the letter it will not always be a cut and dry case.

When we inject the idea of raising revenues then the speed traps of the 60s come to mind. Using the Village of New Rome, Ohio as an example they had 60 residents and 18 police officers. However the village was well funded for years because of Mayor's court and the tickets their police department issued. They were shut down for many of the tactics they were using to trap people and the public abuse of the funds their elected officials had been accused of. Clearly these red light cameras (the traffic engineer) could shorten the yellow time and man we make more money than ever.

So I will come down on the side of Brian and Cristie on this one. I think before they move to place these cameras on any street corner you need to look at the possible abuse of the cameras and just how much time it will take our police department to issue these $25 tickets.

Fix always wants to jump into these things without fully thinking them out.