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Starting tomorrow, photo-enforcement-violation notices must finally state the truth about what's going on -- namely, that you don't need to respond or identify the driver in the picture.

Cities and, for a while, the state of Arizona, have for years employed something of a ruse to help get speeders and red-light runners caught by the machines to pay up. They sent an initial notice of violation that has no legal teeth, yet contained a passive threat that blowing off the notice might not be in the motorists' best interest.

A few years ago, we caught the city of Scottsdale lying blatantly in its notices, which it falsely called a "summons." The notice stated that those who didn't respond would be subject to fines, fees and driver's license suspension.

An Arizona Department of Public Safety notice of violation that we published two years ago shows the more-typical trick. Appearing below DPS insignia, the notice states simply that the motorist should fill out the form and sent it back by the "respond-by date." While the DPS freeway cameras were online, (that program ended last summer), thousands of people likely responded like sheep to those notices -- even though they didn't have to.

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​Photo-radar enforcement is done-zo on Arizona highways, but several Republicans in the Arizona state Legislature say that's not good enough -- they want it banned everywhere.

While state-wide photo-radar enforcement was given the heave-ho by voters last year, it still exists in cities across the state -- and a bill making its way through the Arizona Legislature would put an end to that, as well.

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Elvis Saloum

​A Valley speedster fought that law and actually won.

Back in November, we told you about Elvis Saloum, a real-estate agent from Peoria, who managed to rack up 55 photo-radar speeding tickets while driving his mom's Lexus.

Saloum got busted speeding on nearly every Valley freeway at speeds ranging from 86 to 104 miles per hour, and today all the charges against him were officially dropped.

That's not the only good news for Saloum, the deadline for the Department of Public Safety to file an appeal has passed.
 

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​Arizona was the first state in the country to launch an extensive speed-camera system on highways and freeways.

The experiment failed.

This week, highway crews are ripping out the poles and camera housings along Interstates 17 and 10 and State Route 51 in the Valley, a chore required by the decision in May not to renew a contract with Australian speed-camera vendor, Redflex. The de-construction work represents the last time those infernal machines will slow down traffic.

Though the cameras did train motorists to ease off the pedal a tad in front of the cameras, the Big-Brother-like, oppressive aura of the system stained the agency charged with operating it, the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The DPS, which claims a motto of "courteous vigilance," took the brunt of the criticism for the statewide camera program put into place by former Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano.

 

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Image: Scottsdale Police

Shelton smiles for his mug shot after his bogus 2008 arrest at a speed-camera protest. He beat the rap and is suing Scottsdale in federal court

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A man who was arrested by Scottsdale police while filming anti-speed-camera activists during a 2008 protest is suing the city in federal court.

Jason Shelton, who now lives in Bonner Springs, Kansas, alleges in a lawsuit filed yesterday that the police made a false arrest, infringed on his civil rights, inflicted intentional emotional distress and -- perhaps worst of all -- assaulted him.

Before we get into that, we noticed today on the Maricopa County Superior Court's Web site that a jury found Shelton not guilty last year of fraud charges related to the sale of a vehicle on Craig's list.

Scottsdale must have really hosed it on the fraud case. Records show that Shelton even handled it himself, acting as his own lawyer during the trial.

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Thomas Patrick Destories

​The Phoenix man (known as "Paydirt"), who shot and killed the operator of a speed-camera van in April of last year, seems to have gotten his wish: photo-radar is now done-zo on Arizona highways.

Not that it's likely to affect him -- he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder this morning and probably will be sentenced to more than two decades in prison.


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​Last week, a source who was front-and-center to at the wildfires raging in northern Arizona told New Times that the Department of Public Safety placed photo-radar cameras on an emergency road as response crews tried to battle the blaze.

The DPS, however, now says those claims are false.More >>

www.radarroy.com

​Despite the blazing wildfires that engulfed parts of northern Arizona over the weekend, it seems the Arizona Department of Public Safety wasn't going to allow a pesky inferno to stop it from dishing out photo-radar speeding tickets.

As the fires raged, a source who was at the scene of the blaze tells New Times that the DPS parked photo-radar vans along a stretch of Highway 89, which had been closed to everyone but emergency vehicles, the media, and a handful of residents who weren't forced to evacuate their homes.


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Governor Jan Brewer

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As you may have heard yesterday, the days of photo-radar enforcement in Arizona will be a thing of the past come July 1. The Arizona Department of Public Safety says it will not renew the contract of Redflex Inc., the company that operates Arizona's hated speed cams.

Accidental Governor Jan Brewer, who is running to become an elected governor, probably will get a boost in the polls after taking much of the credit for putting the kibosh on the speed-camera program.

Brewer, in a heated GOP primary to run for the position she currently holds, just received a boost in the polls after signing the controversial immigration bill, SB 1070.

The timing of the announcement that the state would not renew the unpopular program seems like political opportunism by Brewer, who now seems set to coast her way all the way to the August primary.

Brewer's been against photo radar since she took office, but waited until now -- when she's in the midst of a jam-packed GOP primary -- to announce that the state would not renew the contract.

So we want to know what you think: Is Brewer guilty of political opportunism?

Let us know -- and see the results of yesterday's poll -- after the jump.    

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Governor Jan Brewer

​Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., the company that operates Arizona's photo-radar program, sent shock waves around Arizona today with an early-morning announcement that the great, Arizona, photo-radar experiment is coming to an end.

In a press release this morning, Redflex announced that officials at the Arizona Department of Public Safety made it clear that as of July 1, the company's services would no longer be needed because of "a change in the agency's focus."

"Redflex regrets this decision by DPS and believes it has been the exemplary supplier of traffic safety services and has delivered safety outcomes for the benefit of all citizens of the state of Arizona," the company says in the release.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said back in January it was unlikely that the state's contract with Redflex would be renewed, so the news shouldn't come as too much of a shock to anyone.

The timing, however, couldn't have been better for Arizona's un-elected governor.


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