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by jimlongley
Mon Sep 30, 2013 10:24 pm
Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
Topic: Red Light Camera
Replies: 42
Views: 9336

Re: Red Light Camera

As an engineer I was deeply involved in building the wireless network to support the red light cameras in Dallas. As such I can attest that the network and its components went through extreme amounts of testing to verify proper timing on triggering the cameras and flashes. If Dallas shortened the intervals, they did it without the knowledge and participation of the companies involved in providing and placing the cameras and ensuring that they would operate with a high degree of accuracy, and one of those companies is the one that "monitors" the cameras. (Actually everything is post processed. video and pictures as well as time stamps are downloaded to a central location, with flags indicating "possible" violations.)

That said, we often speculated among ourselves as to who was watching Dallas and ensuring that they didn't make the kind of changes that have been suggested would result in an excess of ticket revenue. Misadjustment of the detectors and their timing could result in erronous tickets, but good luck proving that there is any sort of error on their part. You might sit at the intersection and time the lights and cameras, but with the computerized systems in place these days, there is no guarantee that the timing will be the same from day to day much less hour to hour or minute to minute.

But I would love for someone to do so. I was out doing a field survey for a new site and in loading the lift back onto the trailer I fell and broke my finger. I apparently did the unforgivable by claiming it as an on the job injury and taking Workman's Comp. The day Workman's Comp released me, they fired me. Of course they didn't call it a firing, it was a force reduction of one and they gave me a real nice letter to avoid the obvious legal complications of firing me due to the claim. BTW, they were not covered for sending engineers into the field to do site surveys with lifts, so they got in trouble with their insurance company.

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