Florida cities and newspapers have continuously misinformed citizens about red light cameras and we think it’s important for you to get the other side of the story.

Do Floridians  really support red light cameras?

According to American Traffic Solutions (camera company), 85 percent of residents in cities where the cameras are in use like them. RedFlex, another major camera company recently said,  “In a recent nationwide opinion poll, voters showed 80 percent support of the red light cameras as a safety tool.” The Partnership for Advancing Road Safety (PARS) describes itself as an organization that seeks to use best practices to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities on American highways. The group’s number one priority is countering the growing nationwide backlash against the use of automated ticketing machines that has resulted in millions of dollar’s losses for camera vendors. The group itself, however, is the creation of the public relations firm APCO Worldwide. The “founding members” that hired APCO for this public relations project include Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions, UK-based Lasercraft and Redspeed, Germany-based Traffipax and Australia-based Redflex. The overseas companies use front groups to evade laws prohibiting direct foreign influence in the US electoral process.

So it’s safe to say that when the camera companies conduct the poll, 80% or more people are for cameras.

Our newspapers/websites help these companies by using their polls in articles and allowing numerous  readers to come away misinformed, with an opinion that most people support red light cameras based solely on the camera companies own stats.

Cameras have been put to public vote 9 times in recent years. In all 9 instances citizens voted to remove cameras, with between 64% and 86% of the public against cameras.

A recent Orlando Sentinel poll of 7900 residents show that 73%  oppose red light cameras. In Lakeland, citizens have created a Facebook group called “We hate Lakeland Red Light Cameras.” The group has over 1,500 supporters and has increased by 1,000 people in the last month alone. In Tampa, a new TBO.com poll is showing residents oppose Red Light Cameras nearly 2-1. In Naples, over 700 residents voted in a poll that says 62% of residents think cameras are unconstitutional or cause more accidents, while only 26% think cameras increase safety.

Even when a poll is in favor of cameras, it’s nowhere near 80% as claimed by the camera companies or reported by the media. Bay News 9’s latest poll on red light cameras show at least 46% want them gone and the Palm Beach Post’s poll has similar numbers.

With all these stats readily available by a quick Google search for “Florida Red Light Camera Polls”.  Its interesting to note that over 15 Florida newspapers and online news agencies have all used the following stat over and over again in their reporting:

“The Public Opinion Strategies poll of drivers found that 72 percent supported the use of cameras in their communities and more than 60 percent would back a state law regulating their usage in cities and counties.” This was a poll of 800 Florida drivers.

The polls we found include over 10,000 votes and about 65% of the population is against red light cameras.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Florida. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.