Tampa Under Surveillance

Tampa Bay Under Surveillance

Join the ACLU of Tampa at USF

We're being watched.

The NSA is tracking phone conversations and online communications, local agencies are using surveillance cameras to follow people in public, and

Florida police are tracking cell phones
without warrants.

Join the ACLU of Florida's Greater Tampa Chapter

on Saturday April 5 for our Annual Meeting to find out
what you can do to fight back:

Greater Tampa Chapter Annual Meeting
Saturday, April 5, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Westside Conference Center E.
University of South Florida

Tampa Bay Under Surveillance

Cockroach Bay Road in Ruskin

Give refunds to drivers wrongly ticketed by red light cameras

Wengay Newton wants St. Petersburg to start refunding fines to drivers incorrectly ticketed by red light cameras installed since the fall of 2011.

“This was not a thing about safety,” Newton told 10 News. “This was all about revenue”

here

 

Get The Facts on Red Light Cameras

here

Ybor Surveillance

Centro Ybor

Ybor Surveillance

7th Ave

Apopka Man Arrested For Protesting Red Light Cameras

66-year-old Mark Schmidter was on the corner handing out fliers to motorists stopped at red lights. The fliers had a petition and a message about a city council meeting, where citizens could voice their concerns about red light cameras. Schmidter was approached by a police officer. He told the officer he didn't have a permit for the protest, and when asked for identification, responded that as he wasn't driving, he had no need for ID. When he continued to (peacefully) resist the officer's requests for identification or information about who he was, the officer cuffed him and made an arrest. Schmidter's argument about the cameras was that,
Red light cameras are all about money - not safety......more

Florida's Backdoor Tax Increases

Sen. Jeff Brandes filed SB 144 to repeal Florida’s red light traffic laws.

“We have had red light cameras in Florida for over three years. They were initially sold as safety devices, but I have come to firmly believe that they are now being used as backdoor tax increases,” stated Brandes. “We have seen municipalities that have installed these devices shorten yellow light times and set arbitrary standards on right turn on red violations. I believe cities will continue to install these devices if left unchecked.”

Earlier this year, WTSP Channel 10 reporter Noah Pransky reported that the state had quietly reduced the minimum number of seconds for yellow light intervals — specifically for those that were equipped with red light cameras. The result? Citation rates spiked by almost 40 percent in municipalities that have the cameras......more>

Students Irises Scanned At A Polk County School

Good Job Governor Scott

Palm Beach County's "Snitch On Your neighbor" Program
One place where liberals and libertarians can find common ground is government intrusion into private lives, and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s “Violence Prevention Program” has all the earmarks of authoritarian overreach. Bradshaw, a Democrat, stoked anger amongst conservatives when he suggested the program would be used to target political free speech deemed potentially violent by authorities.
more
Florida Governor Rick Scott said, no thanks.
more
However, (Please note) Scott’s reason for vetoing funding was because the whole state would have been paying for a local program, and apparently had little to do with public rancor over the proposal. Scott called the program a “very-well-intended project.”

Hit pause button on red-light cameras

"It's time to hit the pause button on red-light cameras. They have become a bureaucratic nightmare for the state's clerks of courts who process the citations. Drivers cited for running red lights are caught in a maze of paperwork, vaguely worded regulations and an unfair system of fines.

And the cameras are more about raising money for local governments

than reducing accidents.".....Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court Ken Burke.

here

Cameras in Tampa Bay

When Something Isn't Working - Try Something Else

Fla GOP's breath-taking hubris and entitlement hardly limited to Jim Greer

The whole sorry story of the Florida Republican Party under Jim Greer is exhibit A on how near-absolute power, combined with astronomical campaign accounts, can and did breed breathtaking arrogance and entitlement, if not outright corruption, among party leaders professing conservatism.

here

Traffic tickets, fraud probes deaths — and state Rep. Daphne Campbell

She’s a Democratic state representative who has another way to deal with future red-light tickets: file legislation to ban the traffic-surveillance cameras that shot video of her husband’s Honda Odyssey breaking traffic laws.
here
Stogie likes this party. Florida Greens

Revenue Checkpoints Come to Florida

Sarasota Under Surveillance

Bee Ridge and Cattleman

Surveillance

In Tampa

Plan To Protest Red Light Cameras

Across the state on Tuesday.

The protests will be at the following locations:
Dale Mabry and Waters Avenue, Tampa; US 19 and Ridge Road, New Port Richey; Old Capitol Museum, Tallahassee; Conroy Rd and Vineland RD, Orlando; SR A1A & SR 520, Brevard, Cocoa Beach; Minton Rd & Palm Bay Rd, Palm Bay; Corner of Pine Ridge Road and US4, Naples; Spring Hill Drive and Mariner Blvd, Spring Hill; and A1A and 520 and Eau Gallie and US1, Brevard County.
The protests start at 5:30 p.m. and run until 7 p.m.
info

Big Brother In Tampa

Tampa City Council Approves Red Light Cameras

Harry Cohan, Mary Mulhern, Lisa Montelione and Mike Suarez supported installing the cameras. Voting no were council members Yvonne Yolie Capin and Frank Reddick, and council Chairman Charlie Miranda.
here
Please tell me why i supported Ms. Montelione and continue to support Mary Mulhern.

130 Cameras In Tampa Bay

Victor Prout and Nolan Browne
Monitor video screens showing segments of roads in the bay area in the Florida Department of Transportation Traffic Management Center. The center watches 140 miles of Tampa Bay
area roads via 130 cameras.........here

Falkenburg Road

Under Surveillance