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Posted on 23-9-2004
Speed Camera Revenue, Deaths - Need Reduction
by Alan Marston, 23 September 2004
Hypothesis
Having been the victim of speed camera tickets, and who over the age of 16
hasn't?, I firmly believe these devices are irresistible for the
Government not because they are `a public good' but because they're a tax.
I aim to prove speed cameras are a half-truth hiding behind a lie.
Evidence
Police issued a record number of mobile speed camera tickets last year,
yet the road toll is up, not down. In the year to July, 392,333 mobile
speed camera tickets were issued, a 10.5 per cent increase on the previous
year's 355,028. Figures given to Act deputy leader Muriel Newman by Police
Minister George Hawkins suggest police have collected close to $50 million
from all speed camera fines in the past financial year.
The spin put out by governments to justify intensive use of speed cameras
was that it would bring the road toll down. Yet the toll was continuing to
rise. The tentative conclusion is obvious. Land Transport Safety Authority
figures since 1996 show the road toll at a peak of 539 in 1997. It reached
a low of 404 in 2002, but rose again last year, to 461.
The Government was focused on enforcement at the expense of investing in
the safety promoting areas of education and upgrading roads. A cynic would
say that is because enforcement brings in revenue and saftey promotion is
all expenditure. Its a sad statement about the motivations of politicians,
once they have their hands on state taxation, that they would put
balancing the books before people's lives... then I'm a cynic, I believe
that to be the case. Further, I don't believe any other political party in
power would be any different except maybe, and that's a QED, The Greens.
The policy of aggressive ticketing is not having the impact the propagadna
(paid for by taxes) said it would. People are still dying in higher
numbers on the roads.
The Status Quo Arguments
The police acting road policy manager, Inspector John Kelly, was yesterday
unable to give figures on the cost of the past year's ticket take. "I
don't know and I don't care. The reason I say this is because I have no
interest in revenue, my interest is in road safety." Which surely
qualifies as a Homer Simpson moment. The framework of belief is: Police
had increased the use of mobile cameras because they were less
predictable. Drivers had learned the locations of fixed speed cameras,
defeating their purpose. The "anytime, anywhere" approach to speed cameras
introduced in May had led to fewer tickets being issued. But it was too
early to say whether this was a trend.
Mr Kelly denied the cameras were taking officers off core duties, saying
the "significant majority" of those staffing camera cars were non-sworn
police staff. They were paid for from a separate budget dedicated to road
safety. Another Homer Simpson moment, ie., road safety money is being used
for enforcement, and the esteemed officer and his Government's Ministry
has no problem with that fact or cognisance of it, both are equally
disconcerting.
Though the road toll had increased last year, it was still the third best
result in New Zealand's history, Mr Kelly said. Mr Kelly said police were
always open to ways to cut the road toll, but international research
continued to suggest speed cameras played an important role in keeping it
down. Needless to say `international research' without specifying it is
pure political spin.
Conclusion
Politicians have set a tone for NZ roads that enforcement is more
important than spending on safety, money is more important than lives.
Suggestion
Change the tone and attitude of the NZ Police with a directive from the
Labour Party that safety is #1. Therefore since extreme no-holds-barred
ticketting is not working to increases safety, education, reason and road
upgrades are in, secret squirrel cameras and beligerant cops hassling
drivers is out.
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