Delegate calls for more accurate speed cameras

BALTIMORE - You can look at this as cars just coming down the street.

 Or you can see it as $40, $40, $40 Dollars and yes, $40 more dollars.

That is if the cars are speeding.

But problems with the some of the cameras in Baltimore City and other areas have resulted in drivers getting 40 dollar tickets and they weren't really speeding.

A recent investigation found that some of the cameras were doing just that, including this one here on Coldspring.

"The reason I don't have confidence in the system is because there’s not way to verify if people are speeding or not.in the city program there is a system I don't care who the contractor is each contractor needs to make sure what it's doing is in fact a legitimate system of monitoring speed."

State delegate Jon Cardin says when the general assembly returns in January he will ask for a complete overhaul of the speed camera systems around the state.

He says right now there is no uniformity about how tickets are handed out.

For example Baltimore City gives a dual time stamp on its tickets is different from Howard County, which is different from Montgomery and Baltimore Counties and so on.

He says when motorists get a ticket from a cop; there is a reasonable assurance that the officer is a credible witness to an infraction.

Cardin says when cameras have been audited, they make many mistakes.

He says with all the eyes watching traffic, those eyes have to be accurate.

Any county that does not have a verifiable system showing that their cameras are working and are audited correctly that's a problem because the confidence starts right here in Baltimore City show that when you do audit them that they're not working and if you’re not auditing them what's to say that you're not taking liberties with your residents and your drivers?" Cardin says.

Delegate Cardin is asking that all speed cameras are required to be regularly audited by the counties and municipalities that have them installed.

And for every ticket that is issued in error he's asking that the company that runs that machine is fined 1000 dollars per infraction.