Speed camera crusader John King granted Sherriffs warrant to seize police property, wants Simon Overland's desk Norrie Ross From: Herald Sun February 18, 2010
AN ANTI-speed camera crusader has obtained a sheriffs warrant against Victoria Police because the force has failed to pay the court-ordered costs to him. And he says he might just have to sell Chief Commissioner Simon Overland's desk to meet his costs. John King was granted a warrant by the Heidelberg Magistrates' Court to seize police property after waiting nearly eight months for the force to comply with the $522 costs order.
Mr King's patience ran out last month and he obtained the warrant, adding another $266 in legal fees and court costs to the bill. "With that sort of money being owed I might have Mr Overland's desk. I could probably get $700 for it on the second hand furniture market," Mr King says. "The sheriff's officers will apparently visit police headquarters to pick up the goods.
Mr King is angered by the hypocrisy of new State Government sanctions where people who don't pay fines will not be able to renew their motor vehicle registration. A high profile media campaign is running to persuade people to pay fines and offering incentives like reduced processing costs.
"If you are the little guy who cops a fine and you don't pay the sheriff will be down on you like a ton of bricks,'' he says. "The hypocrisy of it is they have this campaign saying they are owed millions of dollars in fines. But they owe money themselves to people like me.''
Over the years Mr King and his technical expert Claus Salger have won a number of court challenges, raising doubts about the reliability of both fixed and mobile speed cameras. The costs were awarded last July after the Office of Public Prosecutions withdrew charges against Mr King over a speeding ticket.
He and Mr Salger proved E and E Testing Laboratories, the company named on official documents as having calibrated a camera in Nth Balwyn, did not exist. "The reason I've not been paid is that I'm a thorn in their side over the speed cameras,'' Mr King says..
"My solicitors says he has never had to issue a warrant against the police for monies awarded by the court. "I won a court order. Why am I still waiting?''
Victoria Police said the paperwork for Mr King's court costs were mislaid and everything would be paid as soon as possible. "We are aware that costs were awarded against Victoria Police in relation to this matter,'' said the spokeswoman. "It would appear that a file has been sent to Victoria Police to arrange payment but this paperwork has been misplaced.
"Victoria Police has requested a copy of the certified court extract so that it can expedite the payment.''
Why Victoria is the Speed Camera Capital of Australia!
by Editor policespeedcameras.com 7th March 2010
I gave what I thought was a simple task to one of our researchers last week.
"Find out the makes and models of each speed measurement device used by the police in each state of Australia?"
I wanted an accurate list of speed cameras, radar guns and laser guns that are officially capable of being used in court as evidence of a speeding charge.
Well I though this should only take an hour or two. After trolling the usual radar detector sites and a few speeding information website's myself, I came up with a very small list of possible candidates.
At the end of the hunt, I was rather amazed at the poor quality of information available considering these websites sell radar detectors in Australia and pro port to be knowledgeable sources of information. After all they should know what is out there and what threats their radar detectors have to contend with. Right?
Wikipedia did best out of all the sites visited, except that their information was mostly about NSW and inaccurate about the Multanova 9F series which isn't legal in WA Courts only the 6F and 6F-2.
I was going to put our whole list up on this site, but the "copy & paste" radar detector website crowds would once again take credit for our work. So as a sample of the plethora of speed measuring devices legally used in the courts of Australia, I thought I would a least show you our Victorian list of permitted speed measuring machines. Read the list here.
Radar Speed Cameras and Radar Guns in Victoria
Gatso Meter R.L.C. (prescribed road safety camera)
Traffipax Speedophot Radar Unit
Gatsometer MRC System
Redflex SMARTCAM Speed System
Poltech SafeCam Mk 1
DCD ROBOT Digital Smart Camera
Poltech SafeCam Red Light/Speed Mk 1
REDFLEXred-speed system
REDFLEXred-speed system HDX system
ROBOT TRAFFIPAX TraffiPhot III SR
ROBOT TRAFFIPAX TraffiStar SR520
Gatsometer Digital Radar Camera System—Parabolic DRCS-P
Gatsometer Radar24-GS11
Gatsometer GTC-GS11
REDFLEXred-speed HDX Optical system
The Kustom HR4
The Kustom Falcon
The Kustom KR-10SP
The Kustom Golden Eagle
The Kustom Silver Eagle
The Silver Eagle II
The Stalker Dual DSR
The Directional Golden Eagle II
The Falcon HR
The Raptor RP-1
The Kustom Golden Eagle
The Kustom Silver Eagle
The Silver Eagle II
The Stalker Dual DSR
The Directional Golden Eagle II
The Falcon HR
The Raptor RP-1
Laser Speed Cameras and Laser Guns legally used in Victoria.
The LTI 20.20 Marksman AT
The Prolaser 11 Model Auslaser
The LTI 20-20 Ultralyte LR
The Prolaser III
The Pro-Lite
The Pro-Lite +
Vitronic "POLISCAN SPEED"
Locktronics LaserCam
REDFLEXlasercam FDSC
(If you see more than 5 of these listed anywhere else, you'll know where it came from... us! They sure were not there when we looked.)
Wow, is this beaurocratic over kill or what? If you live in Victoria, why aren't you making this an election issue?
Magistrate Carmen Randazzo to resign over speed tickets
Magistrate Fibbing to aviod speed camera tickets?
A VICTORIAN magistrate has indicated she will resign after her behaviour over speeding tickets was referred to a judicial panel for review.
Carmen Randazzo stood down in May after allegations arose that she was booked 10 times for speeding and claimed her father was driving the car on two occasions when he was in fact overseas.
Chief Magistrate Ian Gray ordered an investigation into the matter at the time and the findings were released this afternoon, The Australian reports.
Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls said based on the findings, he would refer Ms Randazzo's conduct to a judicial panel for review, headed by former Federal Court Judge John Gallop.
“Today I contacted former Federal Court Judge John
Gallop and he has agreed to head the committee, which will investigate
the matter and make recommendations to me as to whether or not the
Magistrates behaviour warrants a motion to be brought before the
Parliament to have her removed as a judicial officer.”
Ms Randazzo's lawyer, Peter Ward, confirmed his client intended to resign.
“Carmen
Randazzo is a highly regarded individual. She is well regarded by the
magistratery and the legal profession. Ms Randazzo at no stage
intentionally sought to mislead anyone in relation to this matter,” he
said.
“During this period, Ms Randazzo was under enormous
amount of personal strain. Ms Randazzo has made it clear that she does
not want the reputation of the court to be undermined or tarnished in
any way and therefore intends to tender her resignation.”
Speed Camera compliance Certificates
The Victorian Government has been receiving a large number of FOI (Freedom of Information) requests for speed cameras compliance certificates from the general public. Victorian drivers booked for speeding by these radar measuring devices are looking for a "get out of jail free card" hoping for an error to show up in the testing and compliance information for these cameras.
Well in response the Victorian Department of Justice has kindly allowed you plebes to download this information from the net. This way, they hope that you will stop pestering them and wasting their time in the vain hope of finding something wrong with their calibration certificates.
So, if you got booked recently and you would like to see that someone has ticked and crossed the right boxes on the speed camera certificate, you can not lookup the information here. Victorian Speed Camera Cerfificates You will notice that some of the information has been blacked out on the documents. This is in accordance with FOI rules about private information such as signatures and personal details about the person.
Hope this information is helpful.
Axe attack on speed camera operator
June 20th - Police in Victoria hope speed camera footage will lead them to a man who confronted a camera operator with an axe in Melbourne's south-east last night.
The operator was sitting in a car on Wedge Road in Carrum Downs at around 10.30pm when a man smashed the car's window with an axe.
He fled when an alarm went off.
Acting Sergeant Cam Hunt says the man may have been upset about being photographed.
"We are urgently down-loading all the camera files of that particular vehicle in the hope that one of those cameras may lead us to the offender," he said.
"Possibly, he was detected speeding and took umbrage to that in a most violent manner."
Acting Sergeant Hunt say the camera operator received a cut finger and was left shaken.
"Completely unprovoked on an innocent person that was just going about his job," he said.
"He was shocked, shaken, shook up, and very upset over the incident."
"As you can imagine he's not a trained police officer, he's a public servant and a speed camera operator."
This is not the first time such an incident has happened.
In March, Westmeadows man Roger Kanjir was sentenced to nine months jail, for attacking a speed camera operator at Mickleham, north of Melbourne in August 2007.
The operator required hospital treatment to remove glass shards from his eyes.The 36 year old was released on bail pending an appeal.
Email gives snapshot of speed camera locations
By Shaun Inguanzo
12th June 2008
AN EMAIL arriving in inboxes across the state is detailing the locations of speed cameras along the EastLink tollway.
And neither ConnectEast, Victoria Police, or the Department of Justice have denied the locations listed in the email.
Star this week received the email from three unrelated sources and contacted authorities to determine if the details were correct.
The email is not signed by anyone but appears to be written by a person with working knowledge of the tollway, perhaps a construction worker.
According to the email, fixed speed cameras will be located in three separate locations along EastLink, including::
• Beneath the Wellington Road overpass of EastLink, in Rowville.
• Beneath the Greens Road overpass of Eastlink, in Dandenong, and
• Adjustable, slide-rail cameras in the tunnels between Springvale Road and the Ringwood Bypass, at the tollway’s northern end.
A report in a metropolitan newspaper earlier this year also suggested speed cameras would be located beneath the Dandenong Bypass overpass of EastLink.
Tollway operator ConnectEast did not comment on the email and said speed cameras were the responsibility of the Department of Justice.
Department spokesman Haydn Lane said the camera locations were public knowledge and were canvassed in a Victoria Police press release dated 1 February.
But the email, circulating to inboxes around the state and appearing on Australian motoring websites, is more specific than the information presented to Star by Victoria Police.
To read the contents of the email if you haven’t received it, simply type the term ‘EastLink speed cameras’ into an Internet search engine.
West Gate camera fault kept secret
Clay Lucas
May 23, 2008
Victoria - PREMIER John Brumby said it did not matter if the public had been deceived into thinking that speed cameras on the West Gate Bridge were working — even though they had been switched off for two years.
"I don't see why it matters whether they were or they weren't (operating)," Mr Brumby said. "The fact is that if people believed they were operating and that changed driver behaviour, that's a good thing."
Two banks of speed cameras launched in October 2005 at one of Melbourne's worst traffic blackspots were secretly switched off five months later because they were made unreliable by high winds, it emerged yesterday.
Of 17,000 motorists photographed speeding by the cameras, only 4000 received fines because the images generated were too blurred.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Ken Lay told Fairfax Radio yesterday that police and the State Government had kept the camera malfunction a secret because authorities believed they were an effective deterrent.
The speed cameras were turned off permanently in September 2006, two months before state elections.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu asked yesterday if the timing was related to the looming 2006 election.
"Who made the decision to switch off the cameras?" he asked. "Why wasn't it revealed? Was it because it was in that pre-election period?"
Our Comments:
It is astounding that Premier John Brumby finds nothing wrong with deceiving the public in this way. If deceiving the public about this issue is acceptable, what other lies are justified in his eyes? In my opinion, this is woolly thinking in the extreme.
Brumby blasted over speed camera income
Victoria - Australia by Ewin Hannan | May 08, 2008
JOHN Brumby has been accused of "reprehensible" revenue-raising over a predicted speeding fine windfall on the yet-to-be opened Eastlink tollway.
The Premier yesterday shifted responsibility for the decision, claiming the Government was acting on advice from the police about the installation of 22 speed cameras along the roadway.
The Australian revealed yesterday that lead-foot drivers on the 48km stretch of road are tipped to deliver a 14.5 per cent jump in speeding fines into Treasury coffers. Revenue from fines is forecast to rise by $62million to $492 million next financial year.
The state Government said the increase was "principally" due to an expected rise in traffic camera and on-the-spot speeding fines arising from the planned opening of Eastlink later this year.
The state's peak motoring body slammed the predicted windfall as reprehensible.
Royal Automobile Club of Victoria general manager public policy Brian Negus yesterday said: "It's a bit tough on the motorists. We certainly believe people should comply with the speed limit but the Government needs to be more active in this area as well."
Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon confirmed that 22 speed cameras would be placed on the tollway.
Ms Nixon urged motorists to keep within the speed limit.
The budget papers show the annual CPI indexation of fines will also rake in more revenue from motorists.
However, the increases are expected to be partially offset by "improved driver behaviour" leading to a lower number of infringements.
The Premier said the new speed cameras were designed to reduce the state's road toll.
"Our campaign on road safety and speeding is working," Mr Brumby said.
"Last year, we predicted $420million (in fines) and this year it will be about the same."
He said the decision to install 22 speed cameras on Eastlink was based on advice from Victoria Police.
"It's about saving lives," the Premier said.
"It's about getting the message out about keeping to speed limits and driving safely.
"But in the bigger scheme of things, I think it shows how our campaign on road safety and speeding is working."
Mr Brumby said he would "be happy if we didn't get a cent from speed cameras".
"We're all about road safety, we're all about reducing deaths ... this is a good message about driving safely and saving lives." The $492 million in fines included $71 million in fines unrelated to traffic infringements, hesaid.
"Make your licence plate invisible to photo speed cameras." Click here
Radar Detectors have had their day.It takes on a few milliseconds to obtain a speed reading with a laser gun. IF your radar/laser detector manages to sound a warning, its already too late. YOUR BUSTED.
The new generation of laser speed detection equipment is leaving radar based technology far behind. Laser is far more capable as a speed measurement tool than reflection prone radar equipment.
Laser detector jammers are emerging as the only tool capable of defeating laser guns and laser speed cameras such as the new Poliscan Speed Laser Speed Camera. The best on the market is the new BLINDER X-TREME 7 - series of multipurpose laser systems.
With BLINDER stealth technology you'll have time to slow down and avoid a speeding ticket without drawing attention to yourself.
