One fire, one prank, several protests, and one election later, Cleveland’s controversial unmanned traffic cameras were finally given the boot last week, only to be replaced by living, breathing police officers, the Public Safety Committee announced yesterday.
Public Safety Committee chair and Ward 15 councilman Matt Zone said that city police have identified target locations where high speed and traffic accidents have been most problematic. Where these locations are, exactly, remains to be seen.
Now, Zone said, a team of traffic enforcement officers with radar guns will spend a couple of hours each day at these target locations, before moving on to the next. The locations and the officers scheduled rotations will not be published in advance, like the mobile traffic camera locations were.
Additionally, the fixed cameras that we’ve come to know, will remain intact (though dormant), city spokesman Dan Ball said yesterday, which, we assume, will just serve to freak drivers out when we’re flying down Chester and momentarily forget the cameras are inactive.
As for the actual cops with radar guns? Well, we’ll just have to hope we’re as lucky as this guy (or, you know, start driving the speed limit).
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2014.
Periodic rotational enforcement without warning does NOT change behavior and the city officials know that. This is the basis of all officer-run enforcement traps. They make MONEY, and that is the one and only goal.
The predatory money grab purpose for this announcement is crystal clear. To end enforcement for profits will require changing many faces on city council.
James C. Walker, Life Member – National Motorists Association