Speed cameras are destined to fail
Last Friday's editorial, "Welcome back, speed cameras" (March 31) shows that The Sun's editorial board members have their heads firmly buried in the proverbial sand.
Luke Broadwater's article describing Mayor Catherine Pugh's intention to put this disreputable system back online, published that same day, outlined a list of problems — some old, some new (“Baltimore officials pledge to avoid past mistakes in relaunching speed camera program” ). For example:
The Pugh administration withheld the names of the speed camera bidders. Mayor Pugh's budget director said the projected $8 million the cameras would generate next fiscal year would help close a $20 million budget gap. Mayor Pugh herself said the cameras have “always been considered a revenue-producing tool.”
The Sun documented erroneous speed readings at multiple cameras in Baltimore including one in which the driver of a car stopped at a red light was accused of speeding. The investigation also showed that several jurisdictions, including Baltimore, were engaged in contracts in which the vendor was paid per citation. And finally, city officials have acknowledged that, in 2011, their red light camera system issued about 2,000 tickets to motorists with a signature bearing the name of a dead police officer.
Yet the editorial board members chose to disregard their own investigative reporting and endorse this system of randomly generated user taxes.
News flash, ladies and gentlemen: This is Baltimore. Good government does not exist here. There is no such thing as a problemfree city government operation (see the Police Department for an even worse example). You will never see a traffic camera program where greed for revenue doesn't rule the day and the citizenry be damned.
And Ms. Pugh? Her only positive aspect is that she kept Sheila Dixon out of City Hall. Many people supported her for this reason only. It is a sad commentary on Baltimore's political class that we had to focus on such short-term goals. As expected, Ms. Pugh is living down to what we've come to expect from city politicians.
I cannot come up with any logical reason for The Sun's editors to trust the city government over their own reporters. You all need to follow the examples of The Washington Post and the New York Times, both of which are revealing much about Donald Trump that will probably lead to his downfall. We expect this from our newspapers rather than having them suck up to questionable politicians.