Speed Camera Scams Still A Thing In Ohio

If you think that Senate Bill 342 banned all speed cameras, you must not have driven through Newburgh Heights. Tucked over off I-77, Newburgh Heights has continued issuing tickets with hand-held devices that don’t require officers to pull anyone over to issue a citation. To supplement their budget, they are churning out tickets at the tune of 300 per week. Plenty of folks aren’t happy about it but Newburgh Heights doesn’t care.  Another Ohio city, Linndale, has built essentially a house with all the comforts of home — so that it can reap the benefits of traffic cameras while some Linndale officer is paid to sit there. You can read more about the implementation of the bill at Cleveland.com.

Despite the obscene money grab, Ohio cities are desperate to use Ohioans as a source of revenue via the implementation of corrupt (and corrupting) policing for profit tactics.  This scheme was laid bare with the revelations following the events in Ferguson, Missouri and spurred several calls for reform. The federal government, along with many states (including Ohio) have begun asset forfeiture reform and a bill to reform the criminal justice system is being debated in the US Senate. But here, in sleepy Ohio towns, the desire for money is too strong to care about the respect for the law and the ramifications of destroying the citizens faith in law enforcement and the criminal justice system.