I wrote last week about a class action lawsuit filed against the red light camera technology company, Redflex, that the city of Chicago contracted with for its red light camera enforcement. The basis of the lawsuit was that Redflex unjustly profited from ticket fines after it was revealed that they bribed their way into the contract with Chicago transportation officials.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the Chicago Tribune published an article based on a 10 month investigation about bogus tickets being produced by the Redflex technology. The investigation reported the following irregularities in ticket enforcement:
“Cameras that for years generated just a few tickets daily suddenly caught dozens of drivers a day. One camera near the United Center rocketed from generating one ticket per day to 56 per day for a two-week period last summer before mysteriously dropping back to normal.
Tickets for so-called rolling right turns on red shot up during some of the most dramatic spikes, suggesting an unannounced change in enforcement. One North Side camera generated only a dozen tickets for rolling rights out of 100 total tickets in the entire second half of 2011. Then, over a 12-day spike, it spewed 563 tickets—560 of them for rolling rights.
Many of the spikes were marked by periods immediately before or after when no tickets were issued—downtimes suggesting human intervention that should have been documented. City officials said they cannot explain the absence of such records.”
I think one of two things (or possibly both) will happen. First, the city and Redflex will offer refunds on tickets paid during this period of abnormal ticket enforcement. The second is another class action lawsuit against Redflex and possibly the city. Regardless if this glitch in the system was done intentionally or not (both the city and Redflex stated they knew nothing until the investigation came out), those ticketed on these dates should be reimbursed.
If you or someone you love has been seriously injured in a Chicago car crash or Chicago truck accident, then call Chicago personal injury lawyer, Aaron Bryant, for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076.