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Originally Posted by henk4

Is this really the case? It is unthinkable in most European countries to have the law enforced by private companies. Even the companies that check on parking meters are part of the lower government.

In the case of speed and stoplight cameras, as far as I know they are run exclusively by private companies, and most of the revenue from tickets are then given to those companies.

The reasoning behind this was that government agencies are so ineffecient due to all the restrictions and extra checks and balances placed upon them, that they thought things would run more smoothly in the hands of private companies. And, since the companies won't work for free, they decided to give a (large) percentage of the cash to those companies. So you go into a US court same as normal, but all the evidence against you is provided by those companies.

Friend of mine moved to an area with stoplight cameras and recieved a ticket by mail one day, despite the fact that he had been out of state with relatives on the day in question. The guy before him in court got out of his two tickets because they were 12 miles and 15 minutes apart in the middle of a large city and it was deemed impossible to have made it from one light to the other in that time period. My friend could not get out of his because the only witnesses to his location on the day in question were relatives who were considered unreliable witnesses, even though someone had proven the cameras were not working correctly only seconds before.