SafeSpeed Executive Charged With Bribing Cook County Officials For Red Light Camera Contracts

from the safe-bet dept

In January of this year, we discussed how the Illinois Comptroller had decided to opt out of collecting red light camera fees for motorists ticketed by these automated revenue generators. Susan Mendoza said in a statement that while her office was taking this action due to the feds investigating the contractor for the cameras, a company called SafeSpeed, it was also her position that red light cameras were revenue generators with little efficacy at impacting public safety.

All very true... but about that federal investigation.

Omar Maani, a former co-owner of politically-connected red light camera company SafeSpeed, has been charged with scheming with a former high-ranking Cook County official to bribe the relative of an Oak Lawn village trustee in order to install new red light cameras in the southwest suburb.

Maani is charged with one count of bribery conspiracy in a two-page document known as a “criminal information,” which is typically used in cases [w]here the defendant intends to plead guilty.

If true, such a guilty plea and quick conviction would lay bare the truth that red light cameras for years have been used to bilk money from taxpaying citizens to fill the coffers of both state governments and the contractors those governments work with. In this specific instance, the accusations against Maani suggest fairly brazen behavior. Maani is accused of attempting to pay a close family member of trustee from a Chicago suburb in exchange for installing SafeSpeed cameras in the city. While that is good old fashioned Chicago area politics, it's also textbook bribery.

And if you might think this was some one-off scheme, it came about in coordination with the chief of staff for Cook County's Commissioner, Patrick Doherty, among others.

In February, Doherty was indicted on two counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to defraud, accused of conspiring with a fellow SafeSpeed sales agent and one of the company’s owners to pay $4,000 in bribes to the relative of an Oak Lawn village trustee, in exchange for influencing that trustee to help approve the installation of additional cameras.

The charges against Doherty came about two weeks after former Illinois State Sen. Martin Sandoval pleaded guilty to taking $70,000 in bribes to act as a “protector” for red light camera company SafeSpeed. Sandoval said he agreed to take bribes in exchange for blocking proposed legislation to ban red light cameras.

This again should lay to rest what the purpose of red light cameras is: revenue generation. They aren't about safety. They aren't about the law. They aren't about influencing driving habits. They are about money, full stop.

Which is why they should not exist.

Filed Under: bribery, cook county, omar maani, patrick doherty, red light cameras, scams
Companies: safespeed

Notoriously Corrupt Sri Lanka Police Force Arrests Citizens For Pretending To Bribe A Cardboard Cutout Cop

from the really-working-hard-to-push-back-on-public-perception dept

Sri Lanka roads might be getting a little safer. Maybe. Along with raising fines for speeding, police agencies are also deploying fake cops. Cardboard cutouts of officers have been placed alongside roads as a deterrent.

These cardboard replicants may be these agencies' only honest cops. The State Department's report on Sri Lanka says police in the country routinely engage in arbitrary arrests and "harass civilians with impunity." This harassment often takes the form of soliciting bribes. Combine the two and you have officers wandering around with iron fists and open palms. Another report says the bribery is a two-way street, with officers sometimes paying off citizens to purchase their silence about other illegal police activities.

The problem with solicited bribes is large enough the government has set up a portal for citizens to file complaints about bribes solicited/paid. Fortunately, anonymity is an option. Unfortunately, the government runs the website so collected data may help pinpoint where the complaints are originating from.

So, it naturally follows that Sri Lankans -- a third of which believe the nation's police are corrupt -- are toying with the cardboard cops. In a less corrupt society, this would have led to nothing but some fun had by all. Since Sri Lanka is notoriously corrupt, it has led to this instead:

Sri Lankan police have arrested two people who posted a Facebook video showing one of them pretending to give a bribe to a traffic police cutout.

In the footage, a motorcyclist is seen offering money to the life-size figure of an officer with a speed gun in the northern town of Vavuniya.

The man in the video and his friend who filmed it have been released on bail.

They are charged with damaging public property, and humiliating and creating a bad public image of the police.

Satire is dead. Or if it isn't dead, it's being detained and charged.

The obvious point here is the police's bad public image has been created by the police. When citizens are filming what everyone's thinking, the best course of action would be to laugh it off and maybe say a few words no one will believe about "bad apples." Instead, law enforcement has decided to create an international incident by arresting two people having a little fun with stereotypes. Having a stereotypical reaction isn't going to do much to buff out the dents in law enforcement's "bad public image."

Filed Under: bribery, cardboard cutout, corruption, police, sri lanka

AT&T Stumbles As It Tries To Explain Why It Paid $200K To Cohen's Shady Shell Company

from the dysfunction-junction dept

Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti yesterday dropped a bit of a bombshell on DC in the form of this document (pdf), which alleges that Trump lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen was engaged in far deeper, shadier financial shenanigans than had so far been reported. Numerous allegations are made in the document, including claims that Cohen may have violated banking laws in setting up and funneling money through a front company by the name of Essential Consultants, including payments made by Columbus Nova, a U.S.-based affiliate of a company controlled by a Russian millionaire, Victor Vekselberg.

But buried within the document also sits allegations that numerous companies were also paying into Cohen's shell company, which had no employees and claimed to have been focused on real estate ventures. Korean Aerospace Industries, Novartis, and AT&T all managed to pay Cohen for ambiguous services, and all have been providing some comically murky explanations as to why they'd be dumping money into a shell company operated by the President's arguably-shady fixer:

"Korean Aerospace Industries confirmed to The Washington Post that it paid $150,000 to Cohen’s company, but spokesman Oh Sung-keon said that it was not aware of its connection to Trump. The company said that it paid Cohen’s firm “to inform reorganization of our internal accounting system.” The company is in contention for a multibillion joint U.S. contract with Lockheed Martin for jet trainers."

Yeah that doesn't sound suspect at all. The documents allege that AT&T also made four $50,000 payments to Cohen's shell LLC from October 2017 to January of this year (though Reuters now says that those payments could have been as high as $600,000). A statement issued to the press by AT&T attempts to claim that the company was simply seeking "insights" into the administration, which by this point had been in office for nearly a year:

"Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration. They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017."

It's worth noting that while it was nice of AT&T to confirm the validity of many of the documents' claims, the company's rushed public statement not only got the timeframe of the payments wrong, but the name of the company wrong as well.

One of the theories du jour is that AT&T was trying to secure the repeal of net neutrality, the vote for which (December 14) occurred just as the payments were wrapping up. But given that the Trump FCC had already proven itself to be a mindless rubber stamp when it comes to catering to the telecom sector's biggest companies, such additional payments likely weren't necessary to ensure the vote went AT&T's way.

Granted AT&T's also been pressuring the Trump administration to "reform" NAFTA to make it easier on AT&T's telecom ambitions in Mexico. AT&T was also trying to secure the administration's blessing for its $86 billion acquisition of Time Warner. But given the Trump DOJ proceeded to sue to block that deal for anti-competitive reasons (or hey, just good old cronyism), if the payments were to grease the M&A skids AT&T certainly didn't get their money's worth.

The most likely reason is that AT&T, for some idiotic reason, thought paying a shady NYC fixer's dubious front company would help curry general favor with the Trump administration. That's certainly not out of character. AT&T is a company with pretty greasy track record, whether we're talking about the time it turned a blind eye to drug dealers running a directory assistance scam on its own users, the time it was caught helping scammers rip off telecom systems for the hearing impaired, or that time it was caught making bills harder to understand just to help crammers rip off AT&T customers.

Unless there's some legitimate reason for these payments (which seems hard to fathom), this looks like good old American graft exposed to the light. Still, there's a lot of unsolved questions here, and while AT&T's claim that it was just looking for "insight" might work with revolving door regulators like Ajit Pai, it isn't likely to hold up under deeper federal scrutiny.

Filed Under: bribery, corruption, cronyism, michael cohen, payments, payoffs
Companies: at&t, columbus nova, essential consultants, korean areospace industries, novartis

DailyDirt: Parents, Don't Let Your Kids Grow Up To Be Cowboys...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are as many different kinds of parenting as there are parents (or more...) -- every kid is different, and no two parents treat their kids the same way. Definitely, some questionable parenting techniques exist, but who's really to say what's correct? (Okay, child services and/or a judge....) Some folks believe in a free-range kid policy, but others think that's crazy or dangerous. If you're not already flooded with parenting advice, check out some of the following links.

• Intrinsic motivation should be what drives kids to study hard and be diligent with chores. However, there are plenty of parents that try to bribe (or just pay) their kids when they've gotten good grades or mowed the lawn. Do kids learn how to be more responsible when they get paid -- or do they learn to expect a payment for every little task? Perhaps it depends on the type of task. [url]
• Parental cultures vary quite significantly around the world. It's not uncommon for Vietnamese mothers to potty train kids by 9 months. Norwegian kids take naps in strollers outside in freezing weather. In the Polynesian Islands, toddlers take care of babies. [url]
• Parenting advice is everywhere -- telling parents not to praise their kids too much.. or to let them play with matches occasionally. Kids certainly do need to learn how to fend for themselves at some point, but between the extremes of helicopter parenting and "Lord of the Flies" parenting, there should probably be a nice middle ground. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: advice, bribery, dan pink, education, free range kids, helicopter parenting, lenore skenazy, parenting

Traffic Cam Company 'Bagman' Pleads Guilty To Bribing Chicago Transportation Official

from the that's-'safety'-with-a-capital-$ dept

John Bills
Managing Commissioner
Chicago Transportation Department
30 N. LaSalle Street
Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60602  
(312) 744-3600



Mr. John Bills,

As the Commissioner of Chicago's DOT, you are undoubtedly aware that unsafe driving kills or injures hundreds of people every year.* While not every death or injury can be prevented, there are proactive measures that can be taken to reduce this terrible toll.

*[Stats tk, but probably a lot.]

One of the best deterrents is a non-intrusive camera: one that acts as both a recording device and a police officer. (And a judge and jury, truth be told.) In fact, these cameras -- which can* monitor speed and red light violations -- perform 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, generating a possibly unlimited amount of revenue for your department, as well as for the city itself. They may also make your streets safer, both for commuters and pedestrians -- something that can be highlighted when pursuing funding.

*[The spirit is willing, but the tech is weak.]

Unlike more static revenue streams like vehicle registration feeds and road taxes, camera systems can be tweaked as needed to guard against budget shortfalls. Working in conjunction with Redflex specialists, you'll be able to avail yourself to a variety of revenue boosters like shortened yellow lights, sudden speed limit changes, unchallengeable tickets and any number of camera malfunctions or programming errors that will almost always* result in more generated revenue.

*[Caveats apply. See 135-page agreement for further details.]

Choosing the best traffic camera solution for your city is a daunting decision. We at Redflex believe we can offer what many of our competitors can't, or at least likely won't. In addition to our traffic camera "expertise," we also offer the following:

• A condominium in Gilbert, Arizona
• Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep discounts on hotel rooms, car rentals and meals
• Debt consolidation plans for select transportation officials
• Multiple personal finance options

We realize your have your choice in traffic control systems, but would like to remind you that only one company can offer you up to $570,000 in cash over the next eight years.


Sincerely,


Martin "Bagman" O'Malley
Senior Consultant

Redflex Traffic Systems
Phoenix, Arizona
866 703-8097

[h/t velox -- and, yes, if you hadn't figured it out yet, this is satire, but based on a true story]

Filed Under: bribery, chicago, john bills, red light cameras, speed cameras, traffic cameras

Roca Labs Story Gets More Bizarre: Senator Threatens Bogus Defamation Lawsuit, While Nevada Quickly Rejects Bogus Bribery Charge

from the and-we-get-accused-of-working-for-roca dept

If you thought the Roca Labs story couldn't get any more bizarre, well, then you haven't been paying much attention, because no matter how bizarre the story was the last time you looked, it seems to get even more bizarre with the next step. We've already gone through the Roca gag order, lawsuit against PissedConsumer, lawsuit against unhappy customer, threats against witnesses, and weak attempts to use the fame of Alfonso Ribeiro and Tommy Chong in implied endorsements. Oh, and also the threat against us and the fact that a main "doctor" backing their product was a pediatrician who lost his license due to child porn claims.

Last week, the story got wackier, when Roca Labs' founder, Don Juravin decided to file a highly questionable "integrity complaint" about a Nevada state senator, Justin Jones, claiming that Marc Randazza -- the lawyer representing PissedConsumer -- had "bribed" Jones to pass Nevada's (very, very good) anti-SLAPP law. The bribery claims border on laughable and clearly suggest a continuation (or escalation) of Roca Labs' legal strategy of trying to attack anyone and everyone. As we'll explain below, it was also a really dumb strategy that has already failed, as the Nevada Attorney General wasted little time in totally rejecting Juravin's integrity complaint as having no basis, whatsoever.

In the meantime, though, the story got even more ridiculous. And that's because Senator Jones had his own lawyers (who didn't initially appear to recognize what a bad idea this was) threatened Juravin with a highly questionable defamation lawsuit in response. Yes, the guy who helped get one of the absolute best anti-SLAPP laws in the country in place is threatening a highly questionable SLAPP lawsuit. Even though I think Juravin's complaint is laughable, to threaten him with defamation in response? That's just as laughable, and perhaps doubly so given that the Senator supported the anti-SLAPP legislation in the first place.

Even worse, the draft complaint that Jones' lawyer Patrick Reilly sent, revealed that they planned to request "a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction and permanent injunction preventing Defendants from continuing to publish false accusations concerning the Plaintiff." While there are some who have been trying to challenge this, historically, claims of defamation are not entitled to any sort of injunctive relief, as it's classic prior restraint and a violation of the First Amendment.

Given that, both sides here look terrible. We have a company that has a ridiculous gag order on customers, has been threatening to sue just about everyone (including us) that presents any sort of negative opinion on their business, and clearly filed a bogus claim of "bribery" to piss off a lawyer fighting against them. On the flip side, we have a state senator who got a great free speech protecting law passed... and then appears to make himself subject to that very same law by threatening a very questionable defamation lawsuit, complete with prior restraint injunctions.

Oh, and the letter Reilly sent to Juravin and the draft complaint were both sent directly to us as well. Why? Because Reilly seemed to believe that (1) we're a PR firm and (2) Juravin hired us to promote his bribery accusation. Both the letter and draft complaint claim that Juravin "engaged" us to "gain media traction." So, already, in the past few weeks, Roca Labs has not only threatened us with a lawsuit and accused us of being a "mouthpiece" for Randazza, and now Senator Jones and his lawyers are, in turn, accusing us of being a mouthpiece... for Roca.

Well, holy fuck.

We've just been trying to report on the damn story, and highlight attempts to stifle free speech. We never expected to have multiple parties flinging legal threats at each other -- and dragging us into the process with completely bogus claims of working for both sides of this ridiculous fight. Hey, leave us out of this whole thing, and maybe, just maybe, everyone should learn how not to try to stifle free and open speech.

Not surprisingly, Roca's lawyer Paul Berger (the same guy who threatened us) quickly jumped on this massive gift that Jones' lawyer handed him, and responded to Reilly's threat by rightly hinting at the fact that Jones' threatened lawsuit might open him up to the very anti-SLAPP law that Jones got passed. And that actually seems to be one of the very, very few legal arguments that Berger and I agree on. Though, really, I don't want to even bother thinking about the irony of the SLAPP-happy Roca filing an anti-SLAPP against the guy who got the best anti-SLAPP in the country into law.

Either way, however, it's all for naught. As I was working on this story, I got a phone call from Jones' lawyer, Patrick Reilly, who appeared to realize the mistakes he had made. First off, he apologized for mischaracterizing Techdirt in the letter and draft complaint and suggesting that we were somehow working for Juravin. Furthermore, he said that Senator Jones did not, in fact, intend to file the drafted lawsuit. It sounds like Jones and his lawyers perhaps made a rash decision following a bogus integrity complaint -- but they now recognize that their response was a bad idea.

And... the whole issue quickly became moot anyway, because the Nevada Attorney General has dismissed Juravin's bribery complaint (pdf) already. The Nevada's Attorney General's office (who kindly provided me with the rejection letter) tells me that there was "insufficient evidence" in the complaint to believe that there was any criminal activity at all, and that Juravin's "theory of the offense does not rise to the level of a crime." Basically, it didn't take long for the Attorney General to look at the complaint and realize that it was nothing more than someone's personal vendetta against Marc Randazza for having the gall to be involved in a lawsuit which Juravin himself had started (along with his lawyer Paul Berger). Hopefully this means this particular tangent in Roca Labs story is over and done with. But, somehow, I doubt the overall Roca Labs story is over just yet....

Filed Under: anti-slapp, bribery, dan juravin, defamation, first amendment, justin jones, marc randazza, patrick reilly, paul berger, prior restraint, slapp
Companies: roca labs

Roca Labs Exec Claims Marc Randazza Bribed Nevada Politician To Get Anti-SLAPP Law Passed

from the say-what-now? dept

The Roca Labs story just keeps getting weirder and weirder. You can click that link to go back through the earlier stories, since I won't rehash them all here, but the latest is that Don Juravin, the "vice president" of Roca Labs who filed an earlier affidavit in the case (which caused some problems with actor Alfonso Ribiero's lawyers), has apparently decided to go directly after Marc Randazza, the lawyer representing Consumer Opinion Corp. (better known as PissedConsumer.com) in the lawsuit that Roca filed against that company.

Juravin has put out a press release accusing Randazza of bribing a Nevada politician in order to get Nevada to pass an anti-SLAPP law (thanks to Adam Steinbaugh for the pointer). You kind of have to read the whole thing to get a feel for it. The press release is clearly designed to attack Randazza's (somewhat well known) reputation for defending the First Amendment rights of folks who work in the adult entertainment industry.

It is said that politics make strange bedfellows; so what could be stranger than Democratic State Senator Justin Jones, a Mormon with family values, and Marc Randazza, a porn attorney and a speech advocate for pedophiles whose client list includes Phillip Greaves author of "The Pedophile's Guide”, Kink.com, Bang Bus and Milf Hunter. So what brings these two opposite personalities together: money and politics.

So what's the specific details of the supposed "bribery"? Randazza recently wrote a blog post -- since taken down -- talking about how he had met Justin Jones and promised to support his campaign if he'd support an anti-SLAPP law:

"Two years ago, my partner, Ron Green, introduced me to a guy. That guy’s name was Justin Jones. Justin was running for State Senate in Nevada. … I shook his hand and said “if you will sponsor an Anti-SLAPP bill, I’ll vote for you, and I’ll contribute to your campaign.” He promised me that he would do so. Within days of taking office, he made good on his promise. Today, Nevada has the strongest Anti-SLAPP law in the country"

Now, this is perhaps not a particularly wise thing to say either in private or in public concerning a politician. It's possible that the statement on the blog is exaggerated as well. But to Juravin -- who amusingly describes himself as a "concerned public citizen" who "believes in the integrity of our electoral system and that no one person should wield undue influence over government officials" -- it's apparently a sign of our failing republic. Uh huh.

Juravin -- whose company it should be noted has threatened us with what I would argue would be a SLAPP lawsuit -- also claims that the reason Randazza likes anti-SLAPP laws is because he can make money with them, and not because, you know, free speech is a good thing and thuggishly trying to shut people up is a bad thing.

Mr. Randazza is a proponent of an Anti-SLAPP law (pornography lawyers generally want to be able to say and show anything), and he has brought numerous SLAPP lawsuits and generated tens of thousands of dollars in revenue for himself and his law firm. A stronger Nevada Anti-SLAPP law means more money for Randazza.

Either way, it will be interesting to see whether the "integrity complaint" Juravin filed with the Nevada Attorney General actually goes anywhere. It does seem worth noting, of course, that many states have been passing anti-SLAPP laws (because they're a good thing, and we really should have a federal anti-SLAPP law) and that the Nevada one passed unanimously without a single negative vote (there was one "excused" -- and everyone else voted in favor). That certainly makes Juravin's statement that he "speculate[s]" that "the law would not have passed" if the Nevada legislature were aware of Randazza's promise to contribute to Jones' campaign.

Again, making any sort of statement of "if you support this bill then I'll give you money" is not a good idea (even as it's often done implicitly). So, it's reasonable to at least question Randazza's statements on the matter, but considering it "bribery" seems like a pretty big stretch -- and Juravin is far from an unbiased party. At the very least, at the end, Juravin does admit that Roca Labs is in litigation with a company represented by Randazza, but either way, it seems like playing dirty. It appears to be similar to Roca Labs' behavior throughout this entire effort, basically attack or threaten almost everyone calling the company out.

Filed Under: anti-slapp, bribery, dan juravin, free speech, justin jones, marc randazza, nevada
Companies: roca labs

Anti-Game Violence Crusader Leland Yee Arrested On Charges Of Bribery, Corruption And Arms Trafficking

from the and-you're-the-guy-pushing-a-moral-superiority? dept

Well, I'd like to say this is ironic, but it isn't anything of the sort, although it does carry with it a little bit of schadenfreude. Leland Yee, a longtime combatant of free speech (via his attempts to regulate the sales of violent videogames), has been arrested for bribery and corruption charges.

California State Senator Leland Yee (D), a driving force behind California's legislative efforts to restrict minors' access to violent video games, has been arrested on charges of bribery and corruption, according to numerous local media reports.

Yee, who is running for California Secretary of State, saw his office raided by FBI agents this morning in service of multiple arrest and search warrants, according to San Francisco's KCRA. The raid follows a grand jury indictment of Yee, as reported by San Francisco's ABC7. Sacramento's Fox 40 reports that concurrent, related raids are being conducted on Chinatown locations with possible drug connections.

As more new came out, the story got even more ridiculous as the politician who was so against video game violence is also charged with arms trafficking. Fake guns? Ban 'em! Real guns? Let's get down to business!

Yee and an intermediary allegedly met repeatedly with an undercover FBI agent, soliciting campaign contributions in exchange for setting up a deal with international arms dealers.

At their first face-to-face meeting in January, "Senator Yee explained he has known the arms dealer for a number of years and has developed a close relationship with him," an FBI affidavit says, noting Yee told the agent the arms dealer "has things that you guys want."

At this point, all wrongdoing is still alleged (including possible ties to drug dealers) and, it must be noted, this is based on a grand jury indictment, something often entirely unrelated to any actual evidence of wrongdoing.

Still, if you're someone who actively strives to regulate the moral choices made by your constituents, you had better make sure your own life is damn near spotless. And let's not forget that Yee spent nearly $2 million in taxpayer funds fighting for the government's "right" to regulate speech. This is its own form of abuse, one that no legislator ever seems to be punished for: riding political hobby horses at the expense of a public that is broadly opposed to the legislation being pursued.

Filed Under: arms trafficking, bribery, california, corruption, leland yee, video games, violence

Speed Cam Contractor Redflex Accused Of Bribing Government Officials In 13 States

from the nothing-goes-faster-than-greased-wheels dept

Troubled and infamous traffic cam company Redflex is headed for even more trouble and infamy. In its relatively short history, Redflex has so far done the following:

• received an innovation award from the state of Arizona even as the state considered dumping the contractor
• pretty much admitted it ran cameras from 1997-2008 without proper FCC certification
• spent the first six months of 2013 removing more cameras than it installed, for a loss of $3.5 million in revenue
• had its camera systems in San Mateo and Santa Ana, CA declared to be in violation of California laws
• had to refund several thousand fines in Australia after clocking a woman driving at over 100 mph in a vehicle that couldn't reach those speeds
• failed to deliver any data (not just "some" data -- Redflex delivered nothing at all) on its cameras' effectiveness to Denver city officials, thus violating its contract with the city

Given its history over the last half-decade or so, it should come as no surprise that Redflex's ability to secure new contracts allegedly relies on illegal tactics.

A fired executive from a national red-light camera vendor claimed in an Arizona lawsuit that the company provided lavish gifts and bribes to government officials in 13 states to secure new contracts.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger reported Saturday that the bombshell allegations made a 13-page counterclaim by Aaron Rosenberg, former nationwide lead salesman for Redflex Traffic Systems of Phoenix, claimed that the firm “bestowed gifts and bribes on … officials in dozens of municipalities within, but not limited to the following states: California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia.”

Rosenberg claimed Redflex bribed local officials with meals, golf outings and tickets to professional football and baseball games, calling the expenses “entertainment” or “celebratory tokens.”

Rosenberg lost his job after Redflex was banned from competing for contracts in Chicago by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Apparently, even notoriously corrupt municipalities have their limits.

“Redflex was fired in Chicago for corruption. Nobody gets fired for corruption in Chicago,” said Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth), an outspoken critic of the cameras in New Jersey, who called for an investigation.

(Chicagoans should note that the contractor being considered for new speed cams, Xerox State and Local Solutions, is technically no better, albeit less tainted by outright corruption. Xerox's cameras in Baltimore had a 10-26% error rate when audited, meaning the contractor issued up to 70,000 erroneous tickets in 2012 alone.)

Redflex has, of course, denied this and vows to "aggressively defend" itself against these claims. But this latest claim won't do much to salvage its almost completely destroyed reputation. Redflex isn't alone in its troubles. Contractors and camera systems are facing intense backlash across the nation, especially as evidence of faulty cameras, backroom deals and general incompetence continues to surface.

The accusations against Redflex can hardly be considered a surprise, considering the symbiotic relationship between contractors and city governments that tends to form when a new source of revenue is spotted. As long as the cameras issue tickets and the tickets continue to be paid, no one involved at the city level has much reason to examine the inner workings very closely. And if they've been plied by tickets to sporting events and rounds of golf, it makes it that much easier to drown out the complaints of constituents.

Filed Under: arizona, bribery, california, colorado, fcc, traffic camera
Companies: redflex, xerox