Red light camera opponents win legal battle in Missouri; why 'gotcha governing' might be our biggest menace

Red light camera in Beaverton, Oregon. (Wikimedia.org)

Gotcha capitalism means companies lurk until you make a tiny mistake, then punish the heck out of you -- such as a $39 overdraft fee for a $5 mistake. That's sinister enough. But you know what's worse? Gotcha governing.

It's epidemic in America. Local and state governments are hurting for revenue, and can't afford to pay their bills, but politicians can't afford to be honest about this. So instead of raising taxes or cutting costs, they engage in Gotcha governing. To wit: They raise millions of dollars in fees and penalties for parking and traffic violations. A quick glance at the price list for some tiny transactions and you'll easily see the truth -- long ago, enforcement actions stopped having anything to do with public safety and instead represent money-making operations.

The most obvious example involves red light cameras and speed cameras. In fact, since for-profit companies are behind many of these schemes, they are the perfect combination of Gotcha Capitalism and gotcha governing. Across America, if your car rolls into an intersection the wrong way, you'll end up paying around $150, even if no one can prove you were driving. It's a far, far cry from what we imagine as justice -- we'll hear from someone who tried to fight a ticket in court in a moment -- and there's plenty of disagreement about whether these things increase or decrease safety.

But red light cameras -- and by extension, gotcha governing -- took a legal hit last week, thanks to a Missouri Court of Appeals ruling.

Most states require moving violations to add penalty points to a driver's license; but most laws also require a positive identification of the driver when adding points. Because red light cameras only identify cars, not drivers, many states and municipalities get around this by creating an exception that allows red light camera violations to include a fine only.

When the Missouri municipality of Ellisville created this exception for itself, it was sued. Last week, the state's appeals court ruled against Ellisville, creating a ripple effect around Missouri. Kansas City immediately suspended sending out fines while awaiting a final ruling on cameras and fines. The city didn't take that step lightly -- last year it issued $2 million through red light cameras.

That's small potatoes compared to camera programs in some cities. In Washington D.C., one three-mile stretch of New York Avenue with nine cameras issued $28 million in fines since 2011.

One reason for the high fine collections: the cameras cast a wide, indiscriminate net. In this example, a woman changed lanes at any intersection -- didn't run a red light -- but moved enough to set off the camera trigger. She paid $150 for her mistake.

And here's the story of a New Jersey doctor named Michael Ehrenreich who decided he wanted to fight city hall -- and lost. And lost at the court of appeals, too. His protest was honorable, but utlimately futile.

"This scheme violates the fundamental concept of fairness in that it criminally punishes an individual for an action without requiring that the individual actually commit any act," he wrote. "Nothing can be more abhorrent to our legal tradition. If due process means anything, it must mean, at the very least, that the government may not punish someone for an act that he or she did not commit."

Parking and speeding tickets are big business. I've written a lot about this before, such as this story about electronic espionage involving some of the biggest players in the industry. Last year, Australia-based camera firm Redflex was involved in a highly-publicized bribery scheme in Chicago.

Anyone who's ever received a ticket-by-mail no doubt feels like Ehrenreich -- their rights violated, but without much legal recourse.

The Missouri ruling suggests otherwise. So does Chicago's decision to remove 18 red light cameras this year. Smaller cities are shuttering camera programs, too. In Poway, California, the city voted last month to turn off cameras and their $412 tickets at three busy city intersections after a short study found accidents dropped when cameras were disabled.

The American Civil Liberties Union offers some interesting research on camera enforcement. Kansas City found that accidents increased after red light cameras were installed, perhaps from rear-end collisions as drivers stopped short out of fear of pricey tickets. In one city, 93 percent of tickets were issued to drivers making right-hand turns.

Gotcha governing represents one of the scarier developments in our time -- a dastardly combination of technology and law enforcement that robs citizens of rights and property. It should offend every Americans' sense of fairness. It's time to stop digital justice before it's too late.

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