SPEEDING AND POLITICS

My reason for using a radar detector is because I don't believe that speed enforcement is about highway safety. It is about revenue raising. So usual rules of justice don't often apply. Here's a quote on the legality of radar detectors:

If government seeks to use clandestine and furtive methods to monitor citizen actions, it can ill afford to complain should the citizen insist on a method to effect his right to know he is under such surveillance.
Judge Joseph Ryan, Superior Court, District of Columbia

And here's part of a recent article from the Houston Chronicle substantiating my point.

Houston Chronicle - Dec. 1, 1999 -
SIRENS SOUND OVER SAG IN TRAFFIC TICKETS
City officials come up with improvement plan
By MATT SCHWARTZ Copyright 1999
Brown administration officials said Wednesday that they were implementing a "municipal court improvement plan" in an effort to halt falling ticket revenues that have begun to pinch city budget plans.

As of Oct. 31, the number of cases filed in Houston's municipal courts were lagging behind year-to-date expectations by nearly 80,000.

Much of that has been attributed to fewer traffic tickets being written by Houston police. During October, for example, police wrote 46,881 traffic tickets, by far the smallest number of citations issued in a single month during the last seven years. November was only slightly better, with officers writing 47,363 citations.

In addition, administration officials said, municipal court judges are dismissing 68 percent of the cases, many of them because police officers do not show up for court or leave before their cases are heard.

The city's Department of Finance and Administration is projecting municipal court revenues will fall some $7.6 million short of estimates. Combined with other projected shortfalls in sales taxes and miscellaneous fees, the department is projecting the city's general fund could wind up about $12 million below budget.

The city controller's office is projecting an even greater shortfall of $31 million, $16.4 million of which it attributes to sharp decreases in municipal court collections.

Although the administration said it has implemented nearly $12 million in spending cuts throughout almost all city departments, it has turned its attention to Houston's municipal courts. Donald Hollingsworth, Mayor Lee Brown's executive assistant for public safety, said the courts have become sluggish in processing cases and collecting fines and fees.