Speed Camera Company Accused Of Cooking The Books
from the in-the-fast-lane dept
Bob Dole writes "You've heard of Enron and Global Crossing but probably not "Poltech." It's an Australian manufacturer of automated red light and speed camera equipment used in California, Oregon and other parts of the world. The company took a big hit last year when the citizens of Hawaii revolted and dropped a multi-million dollar camera contract. In deep financial trouble, two new articles show that Poltech has publicly lied about its contracts to keep its stock afloat and has been caught cooking the books. So, it looks like crooks are responsible for the machines that some cities use to administer the law, issue tickets and collect millions in revenue. Great. Their claim that cameras are about "saving lives" and not "hard cash" should be greeted with a the same hefty dose of skepticism you'd give if Ken Lay was their spokesman." This of course fits with the recent story (also submitted by the same guy) about how a new study shows that speed cameras don't work. I'm not sure that the fact that the executives may be crooked actually has anything to do with the technical integrity of the camera systems, themselves.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Get with the program....hehehehe
In all seriousness, this is really getting annoying. While the government is busy prosecuting (or apoligizing for prosecuting) McDanel and Lamos (who are poor security researchers with a conscience,) Lay and the other rich CEOs with no conscience to speak of get away with a hand slapped...I guess this is all fair, after all, the researchers were pointing out the evil truth, while Lay and the other rich CEOs valiantly pulled the wool over our eyes.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This is why the company's crookedness matters
"San Diego suspended its program several months ago when police learned that Lockheed Martin IMS, the company that then owned the cameras, had moved sensors, which threw off data at three of 19 intersections."
ACS now runs the camera program, and it's a $320 ticket.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: This is why the company's crookedness matters
This has not happened anywhere else in the country, or probably the world. Is San Diego an isolated incident? Is it a stretch to say the book-cookers in Australia are too virtuous to do what Lockheed (ACS) did? We'll never know because the cities and companies involved keep a tight lid on all information. And, as we've proven, they lie.
[ link to this | view in thread ]