Dallas Traffic Camera - Big Brother is going Broke!

I love this story! It just gives me great pleasure to see this kind of thing happen...for the full story:

Dallas Traffic Camera Story

The long story - short: Big Brother's traffic cameras in Dallas are so effective that revenue is down causing the local government officials to idle cameras and reconsider expansion of the camera network in Dallas.

This is classic - the problem shifted from a public safety concern to one of generating revenue. What is the real problem? A quick citation from the article gives you an idea:

The results of Dallas' 2-year-old red-light camera system are mixed blessings for City Hall, Mayor Tom Leppert said.

"The good news is it's having the effect everyone in this community wants: fewer red lights being run. The goal was not to make money on this," Mr. Leppert said. "But these are numbers and realities we'll have to deal with."

The mayor added that under no circumstances does he expect a decrease in red-light camera revenue to affect the city's public safety budget, although the overall budget may not enjoy as much revenue, perhaps resulting in the city streamlining other items.

Council member Angela Hunt, long skeptical of the reasoning behind such camera systems, says she's not surprised Dallas is faced with altering its efforts to reduce red-light running.

"The idea of the red-light cameras is that they'll be used as a revenue generator instead of being implemented for public safety purposes. It's imperative that the council review this program, especially when the results don't align with the initial performance projections," Ms. Hunt said.

She cited national statistics suggesting that the cameras increase rear-end collisions.

Wow. And the taxpayers are paying for this strategic deployment.