So, here’s what I want to know. How does the money work between ACS and the City and County of Denver. Because, when I got my photo taken for speeding (10mph over, btw), the radar van seemed to be raking in the violations. It’s like printing money. Is it legal? Well, in 2002, the Denver County court ruled that it was illegal to have a non-law enforcement officer issue citations which rendered the photo radar vans at odds with the law. This was upheld by the state court. I’m not sure what’s happened between now and then, but I do know the revised Colorado statute 42-4-110.5 seems to now allow this.

ACS was the company the county contracted photo-radar out to before the practice was halted in 2002, and it seems to be the company the county is once again using.

The fines are capped at $40 (for a normal speeding violation, school and construction zones are rightfully higher). How much of that money does ACS keep, and how much does Denver keep? That’s what I want to know. Because as far as I’m concerned, ACS has no interest in my personal safety and my safe driving. Actually, I take that back on the last part. I would hazard to guess they are quite interested in me driving over the speed limit. As is Denver, by all calculations. The ridiculous revenue this scheme must bring would seem irresistible to any government official (especially one who doesn’t have the ability or the political will to pay for a city’s budget through, uh, you know, taxes).

I pulled this off of a no-longer available ACS website (a subpage on the www.cite-web.com domain which is where violators are directed to pay their fine, with a 2.5% administrative fee, of course). The website itself was cached through Google:

ACS State and Local Solutions is the largest supplier of ATE systems for law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, with more clients, cameras and installations than all other photo enforcement vendors combined.  The Company’s ATE systems include Photo Radar for speed enforcement, Red Light Cameras for intersection enforcement and Traxguard^TM for rail crossing enforcement.  These systems combine cameras and computers with detection technologies to create photographic evidence and digital imaging of traffic violations.  ACS State and Local Solutions offers these systems for lease, purchase, or as part of our complete Turnkey Processing Service.

ACS State and Local Solutions is a company designed to offer not only photo enforcement hardware and technology,but a total solution, including experienced program management, turnkey violation processing, proven community awareness programs and management information reporting — all tailored to your city’s exact requirements.

These are exciting times for ACS State and Local Solutions, we are both the largest and fastest growing provider of traffic photo enforcement systems in North America.  In the past three years, we have received four out of every five procurements awarded in the U.S. and Canada, including jurisdictions such as:

City of Mesa, AZ City of Tempe, AZ City of Beverly Hills, CA City of El Cajon, CA Los Angeles County MTA, CA Metrolink – Southern California Regional Rail Authority City of Oxnard, CA City of Sacramento, CA City & County of San Diego, CA City & County of San Francisco, CA City of Santa Rosa, CA City of Boulder, CO City & County of Denver, CO City of Beaverton, OR

City of Portland, OR City of Baltimore, MD Minnesota Department of Transportation City of Charlotte, NC Texas Department of Transportation City of Alexandria, VA City of Fairfax, VA Arlington County, VA Clark County, WA City of Camrose, AB, Canada City of Edmonton, AB, Canada City of Lethbridge, AB, Canada City of Medicine Hat, AB, Canada Strathcona County, AB, Canada

So, if you live in any of those cities, you at least know who to direct your anger at. The local ACS State and Local Services here is down in Littleton. Man, it would be pretty amazing to sit there and see all the envelopes come in with the bundles of $40 checks. I’d kinda like to operate a business like that. It’s simply stunning that a private company could get a government’s blessing to fine its citizens so brazenly – and then handle all the processing, overhead, the works. And the city just sits there and accepts a nice fat commission.

And that’s sort of my point. I’m all for officers pulling speeders over. Hell, I’d even think that even if I had been cited for speeding before – which I haven’t, because I’m a reasonable and cautious driver. But setting a dial on a camera and then just watching the money pour in? Does that improve safety? Or does it just make for a really impressive bottom line?

[And for the record, I'm not necessarily against their red light camera operation. They do reduce intersection accidents, though they have been shown to increase rear-endings.]