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Photo Enforcement Programs Are Not Independently Tested...

Valley drivers are getting tickets at a furious pace right now.

A new camera enforcement zone is snapping speeding drivers on Frank Lloyd Wright, near 76th Street in Scottsdale.

Electrical strips in the road sense your car, then a computer calculates your speed based on how long it takes you to get from strip A to strip B.

The new device caught more than 1,200 speeders in just the first day and a half.
That's about one every other minute.

But can you trust a machine?

Photo enforcement devices aren't tested like gas pumps and supermarket scales.

Arizona Department of Weights and Measures inspectors test almost every device that affects your wallet, except those used by the police.

Bruce Kalin, who overseas the program for the Scottsdale Police Department told us, "The vendor certifies the system, we're happy with that. We've had the same vendor since 1998. We feel it's very accurate."

Kalin said the contractor, Redflex, runs its own tests by comparing speed readings with other devices.
We found Redflex workers out the day of our report, testing camera focus.


Kalin said you won't be cited if it's the driver next to you who's speeding, because the program singles out each lane, and the camera focuses like a laser on that driver.

"If on the very rare occasion where there may be for whatever reason a second vehicle visible in a single photo, that gets thrown out at that point."

This is the same technology that first appeared nearly 20 years ago in Paradise Valley.

The only thing new about this device on Frank Lloyd Wright is that it's mid-block, not at an intersection. It also measures speed only without monitoring red light running.

Many of these devices may soon get a standard in which they can finally be government tested.

The National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) is now devising standards for testing the camera enforcement systems you see at intersections.

NIST recently completed new standards for what are called 'down the road radar devices' and 'across the road radar devices.'
Those radar devices may get their first independent government test later this year.

http://www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S=2228274&nav=DIH7QJuB