Quote:
| Originally Posted by Bantam Sort of. Alot of the police forces now have new cameras which check for Tax, MOT, Insurance etc.. (it's all linked together now) and regularly have traps to catch those who don't have one or all of the above valid covers. I see them once a month on the A64 in various places. |
I agree that camera technology now exists to check tax, MoT, insurance etc against a central database (hence the barcode on your tax disc which can be read by camera) and I am fairly relaxed about that 'intrusion' since I have all the above and frankly resent anyone else driving without them.
This does not change the fact that 'speed/safety' cameras do not address the above and were never designed to.
I am all in favour of technology freeing the police from mundane process so they can devote more time to making the streets safer but it is important to recognise that sometimes technology is misused.
English law has for centuries been predicated on the simple principle that the accused is innocent until PROVEN guilty. Speed cameras turn that minor legal principle on its head, guilt is automatically assumed on the basis of a photograph and it is incumbent on the driver to prove innocence.
They have even changed the law to excessively penalise drivers who cannot demonstrate good reason for providing evidence relating to such photos and let us not forget that the authorities concede that vehicle licence plates are being cloned at progressively higher rates.
Could you state with certainty where you might have been at a particular time on a day two or three weeks previously? And provide proof? Most of us could not.
The argument will continue as long as there are cameras, some are wholly for them, some wholly against. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, we appreciate that there is a place for cameras but we recognise that all too many are sited to make money rather than make us safer and that ain't fair.
Interesting that speed cameras are routinely vandalised, yet traffic light cameras which similarly issue points and fines are never attacked (perhaps because people recognise they serve a specific purpose, dealing with a safety issue that is appropriately addressed by camera technology.