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If you are wondering what
happened to your Constitutional right of Due Process, the Park Service
has a ready answer for you: "rebuttable presumption."
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Smile…You’re
on a National Park Service Camera
If you’re one of more than 25,000 daily commuters who travel
along the George Washington Memorial Parkway in northern Virginia
there could be a big surprise waiting for you at home if you break
the speed limit.
In an experiment that may spread to a parkway near you, the National
Park Service has been quietly testing photo radar cameras since
last year in two high traffic areas of the federally managed George
Washington Parkway. The high-tech cameras are mounted in discreet
locations on the parkway where, once officially activated, they’ll
secretly snap pictures of alleged speeders. The Park Service will
then mail the pictures and a written citation to the vehicle owners’
home address.
If you, like us, are wondering what happened to your Constitutional
right of Due Process and the right to face your accuser in court,
the Park Service has a ready answer for you: "rebuttable presumption."
Essentially, that means that you have a right to mail in a statement
of denial or even go to court to protest one of these speeding tickets.
However, you are automatically presumed to be the guilty driver
of the speeding car caught on camera, and if you do go to court
the photo could be admitted as evidence. We predict the price of
wigs and dark sunglasses will skyrocket in the Washington Metropolitan
area.
The photo radar project began as a congressionally approved demonstration
of "aggressive driver imaging" that was implemented by
former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Yet the Park Service now
apparently wants to turn the test into a permanent revenue-generating
system and begin issuing tickets to speeding motorists. According
to the Washington Times, the project is being run jointly with Lockheed
Martin in return for a percentage of the fees generated by speeding
motorists. Apparently Lockheed Martin also contracts its photo radar
traps with local governments in the Washington area. Will satellite
surveillance of speeding commuters be next?
This all has at least one congressman and the governor of Virginia
up in arms. In a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, House
Majority Leader Dick Armey, who incidentally voted for the testing
of aggressive driver imaging on the George Washington Parkway as
part of a 1999 transportation funding bill, has asked Secretary
Norton to intervene. Armey’s spokesperson points out that he
signed on for a two-camera demonstration project only and hopes
Secretary Norton will prevent the Park Service from finalizing a
rule that could lead to the use of photo radar cameras on more than
5,000 miles of federal parkways nationwide. "I am concerned
that this may be seen as a step toward a Big Brother surveillance
state, where the government monitors the comings and goings of its
citizens," wrote Armey to Secretary Norton.
Governor James Gilmore is equally outraged at what he considers
to be a federal invasion of his citizens’ privacy. "While
there is clearly the necessity to assure public safety through effective
enforcement of traffic laws, the use of cameras, operating without
human judgment reduces our system of justice to trial by machinery
without the presumption of innocence," wrote Gilmore in a letter
to Armey last year.
We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.
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Update:
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Oh
. . . and by the Way
A
congressional report has found that local governments are shortening
the duration of the yellow caution lights on traffic signals to
snare more motorists running red lights and thus increase traffic
ticket revenue.
And
you thought you were just paranoid.
For
a copy of Majority Leader Dick Armey's report, The Red Light
Running Crisis. Is It Intentional?,
click
here.
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