Bill Allows Ticketing By Photo-Cops Machines Would Be Used In Pilot Program

Nobody likes getting a speeding ticket - especially from a mechanical cop.

But a bill authorizing Spokane police to use automatic ticketing machines is headed for the Senate floor next week.

The bill would allow a two-year pilot program to test the so-called photo-cop machines.

Spokane police say the machines will help catch more speeders and make the streets safer.

“It will cut back on people who think they can speed in certain areas,” Spokane Police Lt. Glenn Winkey.

Photo-cop machines can write two tickets per-second. The human version generates only 10 to 15 a day, police say.

Under the bill, photo-cop speeding tickets would start at $66 and will go up from there.

The machine automatically checks the speed of passing cars and takes photographs of the license plates and drivers of those that are speeding. An officer monitors the machine while it operates.

Tickets then are mailed to the registered owner of the car. If the owner wasn’t driving at the time, he or she must contest the ticket.

“If it isn’t you driving, we’ll drop the ticket,” Winkey said.

Spokane police have been working for eight months to get photo-cop on the streets, Winkey said.

The Legislature got involved because the city needs permission to mail tickets to registered vehicle owners rather than the drivers.

Some legislators are suspicious about the machines.

“If your goal is to slow people down, this is the wrong approach,” said Sen. Jim West, R-Spokane. “If your goal is to make money from tickets, it will work.”

West especially dislikes mailing tickets to car owners. “The car is not guilty of speeding,” he said, “the driver is.”

Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane, also questions the machine.

“I think that when we fine and arrest people, we should do it in person,” McCaslin said.

Minority Leader, Sen. Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, said he supports the bill.

“It ought to be done on a pilot basis to see how it works,” McDonald said. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll quit the pilot.”

Rep. Dennis Dellwo, D-Spokane, said photo-cop could help police do their jobs.

“If it saves police time and gets more crime off the streets I would agree to it - as long as there are protections for the driver,” Dellwo said.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill Monday. It then will go to the House.

, DataTimes