{"id":436,"date":"2011-02-24T20:45:20","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T02:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=436"},"modified":"2011-02-24T20:45:20","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T02:45:20","slug":"every-step-you-take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=436","title":{"rendered":"Every Step You Take . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cOn the wall outside his former residence – flat number 27B – where George Orwell [author of the novel 1984] lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fawkes-Lee & Ryan strongly opposes the use of government-placed cameras on streets and street corners.\u00a0 We\u2019re also realistic.\u00a0 We don\u2019t believe the use of traffic cameras will be outlawed.\u00a0 In the alternative, we believe making sense of their use is the next best option.\u00a0 As it\u2019s told, the horses are out of the corral.<\/p>\n

Fawkes-Lee & Ryan believes that consistency is the primary purpose of legislation that attempts to regulate the use of Automated Traffic Enforcement Systems (ATES).\u00a0 House Study Bill 93 is a House Transportation study bill that proposes to regulate the use of ATES.\u00a0 As it is, the use of ATES is something used by cities in large metropolitan areas of the state.\u00a0\u00a0 It is not a sensible option for small rural communities and counties.\u00a0 The potential use of these systems by smaller cities in Iowa is somewhat prohibitive based upon several factors.\u00a0 Without a consistent basis with which to regulate the use of these systems, abuse is a potential reality.<\/p>\n

Small rural counties and communities cannot realistically use these systems.\u00a0 Whereas, a city such as Cedar Rapids can set a fine at $65, and keep a little over half of the proceeds of the fine for administrative costs and other variables, cities such as Carroll and Fairfield will not be able to justify the safety needs of these systems as it correlates to the costs of implementation and maintenance.\u00a0\u00a0 If a small community or county within Iowa should desire to install and utilize such a system, the monetary penalty for a violation would have to be considerably more than the $65 Cedar Rapids charges.\u00a0 Therefore, the ceiling of $50 per penalty is an adequate amount to prevent any potential abuse.<\/p>\n

ATES should not be used as cash cows for local authorities, as many citizens believe them to be, and HSB 93 strikes a balanced comprise.\u00a0 A small due process consideration of having signs posted in a uniform manner throughout the state is not too much to ask.\u00a0 The size of the sign, the distance of the sign from the ATES based upon the speed limit of a given road, the dimensions of the sign and what it says are all important facets of a consistent program that offers due process to motorists.<\/p>\n

There are several problems with the use of ATES that require more attention from Iowa legislators.\u00a0 First, if these ATES are installed truly for public safety purposes, than because there are civil penalties and not criminal penalties attached to the penalty phase, there can be no repercussions for motorists that accumulate a mass of speeding tickets.\u00a0 For instance, if a law enforcement officer stops a person for speeding, the person violating the speed limit receives a criminal sanction and the offense is attached to the person\u2019s driving record.\u00a0 If that same person receives 3 of those personally presented citations in a year, that person is on the way to becoming a habitual offender.\u00a0 On the other hand, if that same person speeds through a red light ten times in a month, which is part of an ATES, the only consequence is that that person is out a lot of money.\u00a0 There is no threat to the privilege of possessing a driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 Unfortunately, far too many city officials fail to see that this is NOT an enhancement of public safety.<\/p>\n

Likewise, as a city\u2019s residents become familiar with where speed cameras are located, traffic will slow to a crawl in those stretches of the road because of the natural tendency to reduce speed as traffic comes within range of the cameras.\u00a0 Already, any radio station in the area will provide a public service announcement (ahem, if that\u2019s what we can call them) to inform residents of where the speed traps are located.\u00a0 Bottlenecks will become more and more prevalent.\u00a0 The likelihood of road rage will increase.\u00a0 These unforeseen problems are going to have to be dealt with as ATES grow across the state.<\/p>\n

The eeriness of Orwell\u2019s prediction didn\u2019t occur in a year, it took time.\u00a0 Government in this country has not gone as far as England, but if we\u2019re not vigilant, it will be a matter of time.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2011\u00a0 Fawkes-Lee & Ryan.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Every breath you take
\nAnd every move you make
\nEvery bond you break
\nEvery step you take
\nIll be watching you<\/em><\/p>\n

Sting \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ll be watching you.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The eeriness of Orwell\u2019s prediction didn\u2019t occur in a year, it took time. Government in this country has not gone as far as England, but if we\u2019re not vigilant, it will be a matter of time. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,56],"tags":[188,189,40,26,187,574,132,190],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues","category-privacy","tag-automated-traffic-enforcement-systems-ates","tag-cedar-rapids","tag-due-process","tag-fawkes-lee-and-ryan","tag-george-orwell","tag-privacy","tag-public-safety","tag-sting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}