Arizona: Freeway Speed Cameras Jail Innocent Motorists
Feb 16, 2022 • 08:43
Lesson from that failed AZ speed scameras.
They do ensnarl innocent motorists over camera tickets.
The proliferation of speed cameras in Arizona, particularly Scottsdale’s Loop 101 freeway camera program, has caused a significant number of motorists to be arrested for driving on a suspended license, even though these drivers had no idea they had ever done anything wrong in the first place.
Scottsdale resident Sherri Zanoff had her license suspended in 2005. Under Arizona law, before any suspension for failure to pay a photo ticket can take effect, motorists must be served with that ticket by a human being. Process servers earn between $7 and $9 for each ticket delivered – and zero for any ticket returned as undelivered. As a result, the servers sometimes bend the rules.
Scottsdale claimed Zanoff had been served on March 10, 2005, but Zanoff had proof that she was on a plane to Costa Rica that day. Despite the evidence, a judge suspended her license. Zanoff spent $1000 in legal fees to overturn the Scottsdale court decisions on appeal. The ordeal cost her even more in increased insurance premiums and inconvenience.
“I had to get rides from the court to the MVD, to an attorney, back to court, all without a driver’s license,” Zanoff told the Chandler Times.
Brandi Mooney, 33, was thrown in a Phoenix jail after police stopped her on September 26 for driving on a suspended license. Mooney had renewed the registration on her Ford Explorer on September 6 and had no reason to believe or know that her license had been suspended on that very same day. She had never received any ticket.