ReviewWorks

The Department of Public Safety’s newly appointed director this week joined a growing chorus of powerful voices speaking out against the state’s photo-enforcement system. In interviews this week, Robert Halliday said that the system should be restructured if it’s not scrapped. Halliday, whose appointment must be confirmed by lawmakers, said he would prefer to put more officers on speed camera in arizona highways instead of deploying the 78 fixed and mobile photo-enforcement units scattered around the state. Arizona is the only state to implement “photo enforcement,” as its known, on major highways and is one of 12 states and 52 communities, plus the District of Columbia, with speed cameras, according to the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The cameras, paired with radar devices, photograph vehicles exceeding the speed limit by 11 mph or more. A notice of violation — carrying a fine of $181.50 — is then sent to the address of the vehicle’s registered owner. Now it seems enough folks are growing increasingly unhappy with this unconstitutional invasion of privacy. And so, unsurprisingly, “conservatives” in the Arizona legislature may again find the “principles” and do away with them. By the way, Arizona is not the only state to have fun with speed cameras.