Bull. If there were really that level of violations, it'd be more than cost effective to pay for an officer at each intersection.

Duh? Police officer at an intersection = no traffic offenses.

Ah, the pro civil service Right is heard from....

Several years ago Beaverton, OR was extolling the virtues of the red light robocop cameras too . . . till it got out that the camera manufacturers upped their per-citation $$ kickback by forcing the signal programmers to shorten the timing on the "yellow cycle" by a second.

Either way, the offending drivers deserve it. They should all be riding trains anyway, right?

1) There is an inescapable appearance of unfairness when those in law enforcement personally profit from prosecutions, ala' an old country song, "I've got the 'Grab 'em off the Interstate, Sock it to 'em, J.P.', Blues."

2) Our city recently went to these cameras to stop late left-turners who had been gridlocking our main traffic artery, a 12-lane boulevard. They seem to be working well, and we are not hearing that they are being abused.

John: How can "the camera manufacturers" FORCE "the signal programmers" (whoever that is?) to do anything?

Unlike speeding, running a red light always puts people at risk. Period.

More importantly, both are against the law. If you want to speed, run red lights and drive drunk then change the law. Otherwise, we're going to enforce the laws.

b: Force is probably the wrong word. The camera system folks [who were in on the lucrative $ take -- which is fine I guess?] apparently stipulated how long the yellow cycle could be on the lights where their equipment was installed. And that amount of time was, on average about a second SHORTER than the lights w/o cameras [or the lights were before they got cameras].

Please don't misunderstand, I'm certainly NOT condoning running red lights. Or riding trains for that matter.

"If you want to speed, run red lights and drive drunk then change the law. Otherwise, we're going to enforce the laws."

I hereby put forth a bill placing STOP signs along the Mexican border...

We only enforce laws we care about.

"We only enforce laws we care about."

Fining people by remote control (a letter demanding payment) is not enforcing the law against red lights. I was mailed a letter from Hertz last January stating they had received a letter from a red light camera firm for a car I had rented in October in N. Ohio. They(Hertz) very generously paid the fine with my VISA, that they had on file. This whole process changed my driving habits not at all because I never dealt with anybody in a position of authority. I don't even know what intersection the violation occured. What it did engender in me is a strong desire to blow up red light cameras.

When did you last run a red light?

Was it here that I was directed to an article concerning red light cameras installed at intersections in a small town in Georgia that were removed a few months afterward, mostly because they were so effective that the town effectively lost a major source of revenue? It was rather revealing, in terms of the real purpose of the cameras. One hopes the Seattle police have other priorities.