Car Insurance Facts

Law enforcements ability to write traffic tickets has limitations. For one, a law enforcement official can only pull over and write one citation at a time. The governments found this to be too time consuming and it cost too much money.

Now with technology growing at a rapid pace, new and alternative methods have been created.

The government decided in its wisdom that it wasnt generating enough revenue with the traditional method of the traffic cop.

There were just too many elements that was involved with an actual police officer pulling you over to hand out a citation. The first thing was having to hire the officer himself to pull you over. Next he had to pull you over with his police vehicle which is expensive in itself. And then what he let you off with just a warning?

And maybe the final factor was that in the time it took for said police officer to pull you over and write the ticket dozens more drivers go speeding by! Money lost down the drain.

So the photo radar was introduced to take handing out tickets to a whole new level. They can do the job of many officers.

With photo radar also known as traffic cameras, speeding tickets are simply mailed to the offender. Talk about customer service!

Since its’ beginning, photo radar has been proven to: Save police department’s time and money. Improve conviction rates in traffic court. Maximize city resources available for traffic enforcement. Increase individual insurance rates.

There are little more than twenty states or so that use this method of photo radar to hand out speeding tickets, but its presence is on the rise.

The photo radar is such a money maker that its popularity is growing fast.

Cities are starting to latch on to the photo radar band wagon because of the revenue generating potential. Its relatively simple for a city to have one installed and the photo radar pays for itself quickly.

Cash strapped cities are finding out that when they install photo radar it gives them immediate money generation.

Looking at it from the municipalities’ point of view it makes perfect sense. One photo radar can do the work of what would normally take a small army of real officers.

How does a photo radar work you may ask? Think of it as a radar gun and a high quality camera rolled up into one. It gets programmed to take a photo of your license plate at a certain speed.

For instance say the speed limit of a particular road is set at 45 mph, the photo radar can be set to activate if it detects a speed over 50 mph.

When this happens, the radar gun will instantly trigger the camera to take a picture of the entire vehicle (sometimes it’s just the back, other times its the back and front of the vehicle) to get the license plate information. The picture is electronically filed away and the process is carried on throughout the day and night. Hundreds of individuals will have their picture taken – courtesy of Big Brother.

When the database of the photo radar is accessed at a later time, they photos will be examined inaccurancies.

The first thing they will look for is the license plate. If it is blurry or simply unclear, the picture will be disposed of and the next one will be examined.

Once a legible license plate is found, the examiner will then look up the license plate number with the bureau of motor vehicles. The BMV will send back the name and address of the person the car is registered to. If the name comes back as a male, the examiner will then look to see if a male is sitting behind the wheel of the car. If there is, BINGO! The examiner will then send the registered owner of the car a speeding ticket in the mail.

This process is repeated until all the pictures from the photo radar have been gone through, until the next batch arrives. Please let this article be a warning for you to look out for photo radar enforcement!

Want to find out more about getting your speeding ticket dismissed? Then visit Steven Swihart’s site for the best advice on any kind of traffic violation.