Hidden cameras spark speeding ticket controversy
Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. now use radar cameras to ticket speeders on roads and highways. Critics call it a money-making scheme. Others say it saves lives by getting speeders to slow down.
CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassman joined "Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge from Ridgeland, South Carolina -- a state that has taken the use of radar cameras to a whole new level and caused quite a controversy while doing it.
Strassman, with Interstate-95 behind him, reported this week, spring breakers are among the 40,000 people every day who use a seven-mile stretch of the highway that passes through the small town of Ridgeland, S.C. Some of them tourists speeding into a vacation snapshot no one wants.
What's that snapshot? It's the one taken from the radar cameras on one of I-95's most dangerous stretches.
From inside an RV, a police officer monitors the I-95 traffic. The speed limit is 70 miles per hour. Outside, every flash of the radar camera means another driver going at least 81 miles per hour. One camera recorded the driver's face, the other his car's license plate.
"It's hard to argue with photo evidence of your vehicle, you driving it and showing your speed," says Steve Swinehamer of the Ridgeland, S.C. Police Department.
Eighty percent of violators are from out of state. If they're speeding in the wrong spot, the radar camera automatically goes off -- and takes an image.
Ridgeland, S.C., has a population of 4,000. Since last August, the tiny town issued 10,000 tickets.
Accidents are down 30 percent, and there's not been a single highway fatality.
"Have you ever had a program with this kind of impact?" Strassman asked.
"No," Police Chief Richard Woods replied.
"Could you ever write this many tickets with the 17-man police force you have?" Strassman asked.
"No, not even close," Woods said.
The method is efficient and effective, but also controversial, Strassman pointed out.
"We need to get people to slow down on the roads," one motorist told CBS News.
Another said, "I don't think it's right."
South Carolina state Sen. Larry Grooms said of the cameras, "I don't want South Carolina to become the nation's speed trap."
Grooms wants radar cameras outlawed.
"This is really a money-making scam. It's not designed to increase public safety," he said.
The average ticket is $133. Ridgeland alone has taken in almost a $250,000 in eight months, though Mayor Doug Hodges insists, it's not about the money.
"Our No. 1 goal of this program is safety," Hodges said.
South Carolina lawmakers are now considering a bill that would kill this program, Strassman reported, adding, its supporters say it's a little too much Big Brother.