Pinal County Sheriff joining photo radar protest
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu will be speaking at a protest being held this weekend at the Arizona Headquarters of Redflex Traffic Systems, an Australian Photo Radar Company.
Protests of the company by an activist group have been ongoing since Redflex signed a Contract in 2008 to operate fixed photo radar machines and mobile vans on the interstates and freeways throughout the state. The protest will be happening Saturday, beginning at 12:00 noon. Representatives of Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar (ACAPR) are also scheduled to speak.
Babeu and ACAPR have been allies since he took office in early 2009 and ended the Photo Radar operations of Redflex in his county. The newly elected Sheriff cited the safety risks posed by the cameras to motorists in Pinal County as well as the argument that the system is unconstitutional. Babeu credits his stance on photo traffic enforcement with winning him the election for Sheriff in 2008.
A spokesman from Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar was quoted as saying, “The system was never about safety, it’s always been about making money. The people of Arizona don’t like it and as a matter of fact, photo radar has never survived a public vote anywhere, ever. When our citizens get the chance this November, they will vote them down too.”
ACAPR has been circulating a ballot initiative for over a year now that would ban photo traffic enforcement in all forms and say they will get the number of signatures they need to put it on the ballot. Currently fifteen other states have a complete ban on the systems including neighboring Nevada and Utah.
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5 Responses to “Pinal County Sheriff joining photo radar protest”
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lets not forget that Babeu has several high speed tickets via photo radar. I think it was like 6 or so in 2 years. No wonder he hates them. If you dont speed the cameras are not a problem.
Babeu is such a joke… Wish he would just go back to Mesa or wherever he came from!
He is doing the best for all of us. Why give our money to a private company’ if this is about safety? Keep up the good work Sheriff Babeu.
Arizona will be ban photo radar this year, thanks to the great American Sheriff Paul
Babeu is doing the best for *himself* and his cronies. As the previous poster said, if you don’t speed then you have nothing to worry about! How hard is it to slow the eff down?
And urmmmm yea, “great American”? Please… LOL
I like the Babeu Adminstration. After 13 years, I finally got my rifle out of evidence. I’ll vote for him again.