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The city where red light cameras ticket cars that have stopped

In Denver, red light cameras are ticketing cars that are stopped, but whose tires are marginally over the white limit line.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Some cities are tiring of red light cameras, feeling that they're more trouble than they are, well, worth.

Other cities--Denver, for example--seem to believe that their worth just hasn't been fully mined.

In a fit of unusual enterprise, one that Wall Street might take a close look at, Denver has reportedly begun to ticket cars that have actually stopped at red lights.

How might city officials do that and keep their face straight? some might wonder.

Well, according to CBS Denver, the city's red light cameras operate a no-tolerance policy on drivers' front wheels. If they are but a few inches over the white stop line, the cha meets the ching, so a ticket's the thing.

Naturally, there are accusations of barefaced, civic-minded theft.

Most of those who question the tickets and go to court reportedly lose. This despite the fact that the examples shown by CBS Denver did not involve any dangerous circumstances.

Denver Police Dept. Photo Enforcement Supervisor Ted Porras told CBS Denver: "When we review the violation image and the front tire is (only inches away from) the stop bar, we will not issue the citation."

But his inches and your inches might work on different scales of measurement. The fine, though, inches toward mockery--$75.

Porras claims that absolutely, no way, under no circumstances do red light cameras exist merely to make money.

He said: "If this was simply a money-generating machine, all that people need to do is follow the law and we wouldn't have a reason for the program."

If there is logic in that statement, then England is known largely for its sunshine. Does he mean that if everyone could be sure to stop just this side of the white line and judge the length of the front of their cars to the very last millimeter, then there would be no red light cameras?

One can only hope that pressure is firmly applied to the right people in the right places in order for a few inches of sense to prevail.