MDA obtains speed camera proposals from Salisbury

After more than a month of stonewalling by Mayor James Ireton of Salisbury, the Maryland Drivers Alliance has obtained a copy of the Brekford speed camera contract from an entirely different source who respects the Maryland Public Information Act.   In addition, we obtained speed camera proposals that were submitted to Salisbury by several other vendors.

The proposals provide a great deal of information about the speed camera systems that might prove useful in defending speed camera citations.

The bid comparison sheet (speed camera ranking matrix), the contract, and the proposals can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

Salisbury Speed Camera Ranking Matrix

Brekford Speed Camera contract

Brekford Speed Camera proposal (accepted by Salisbury)

Redspeed speed camera proposal

Redflex speed camera proposal

Gatso speed camera proposal

Optotraffic speed camera proposal Part 1 of 2

Optotraffic speed camera proposal Part 2 of 2

Montgomery County Safe Speed Also Missing Camera Logs

Earlier we reported that the City Of Gaithersburg did not have daily self test logs recorded every day for some of its cameras. It turns out that this is the case for some county-run cameras as well.

We have discovered that several cameras managed by Montgomery County (not just Gaithersburg) have similar gaps in the daily setup logs. Logs for 3 randomly selected cameras were requested via a public information act request, along with the number of citations issued on each day. The results showed that for each of the 12 camera/days the test was NOT performed on that day, in each case at least 2 days went by with no daily self test log. 9 of the 12 camera/days had citations being issued, with 1 report of 0 citations and 2 camera days where no response was provided (the reason for those 3 days is not know at this time)

27000 Ridge Road SB
Date Requested _ Date Set Up _ Date Shut Down _ #Citations Issued on Requested Day
11-28-2009 _____ 11/27/09 ____ 11/30/09 _______ 60
12-27-2009 _____ 12/23/09 ____ 12/28/09 _______ 63
01-03-2010 _____ 12/31/09 ____ 01/05/10 _______ 37
01-31-2010 _____ 01/28/09 ____ 02/01/10 _______ 21

19600 Georgia Ave NB
Date Requested _ Date Set Up _ Date Shut Down _ #Citations Issued on Requested Day
11-28-2009 _____ 11/27/09 ____ 11/30/09 _______ 64
12-27-2009 _____ 12/24/09 ____ 12/28/09 _______ 74
01-03-2010 _____ 12/31/09 ____ 01/04/10 _______ 53
01-31-2010 _____ 01/29/09 ____ 02/01/10 _______ 49

13600Darnestown Rd Wb
Date Requested _ Date Set Up _ Date Shut Down _ #Citations Issued on Requested Day
11-28-2009 _____ 11/27/09 ____ 11/30/09 _______ 52
12-27-2009 _____ 12/24/09 ____ 12/28/09 _______ unknown
01-03-2010 _____ 12/31/09 ____ 01/05/10 _______ unknown
01-31-2010 _____ 01/29/09 ____ 02/01/10 _______ 0

Gaithersburg Skips Speed Camera Checks, Scoffs at Law

The City of Gaithersburg is routinely ignoring state law and failing to perform daily tests on their speed cameras.

A provision of the Maryland law authorizing speed cameras states the following:
"(3) A speed monitoring system operator shall fill out and sign a daily set-up log for a speed monitoring system that:
(i) States that the speed monitoring system operator successfully performed the manufacturer specified self test of the speed monitoring system prior to producing a recorded image;"

A member of StopBigBrotherMD.org became aware that the tests were not always being done and requested several daily self test logs from Gaithersburg. The selected dates were all weekends. (Unlike the rest of the state Montgomery County an its municipalities are permitted to use 'residential zone' cameras which, unlike school zone cameras, are permitted to issue tickets 24/7 including weekends. As of summer 2009 about 80% of the camera sites located in Montgomery County fell into this category.)

Three log files were obtained for a camera located at 500 S Frederick Road, and not one of those logs showed the daily self test performed on that day. For December 5 2009, the start of the period was Dec 4 and the end was Dec 7 -- 3 days. For Jan 17, 2010 it was Jan 13-19 -- 6 days. For Dec 27, 2009 it was Dec 18-28 -- 10 days without a 'daily' setup log. The response from the city showed that citations were definitely issued from the cameras on each of the three selected days.

VIEW CAMERA LOGS