NYC police state...

Mayor Bloomberg pushes for traffic light cameras 'on every corner'

BY Erin Einhorn

Mayor Bloomberg wants to blanket the city with red light cameras - and maybe even publish the names of scofflaws who blow through intersections.

"I think we should have 'em on every corner if we could," the mayor said of the controversial cameras that trigger tickets to drivers caught running red lights.

"If people didn't go through red lights, you'd save a lot of lives of elderly and kids," Hizzoner told reporters Monday during a press conference.

Bloomberg was responding to a Daily News report on the $52 million in fines the city issued last year to drivers caught by cameras - really a $55 million haul with penalties included.

Bloomberg wants Albany to increase the number of cameras permitted on city streets to 225, up from the current 150.

A bill to hike the number of cameras passed the state Senate in June, but stalled in the Democratic-controlled Assembly.

The city is allowed to put up as many cameras as it wants but needs state approval to fine drivers for the related infractions.

The mayor mused that the city could put up the cameras - then try to embarrass the rule-breakers.

"Maybe what we should do is do it and start publishing in the paper who does it and then a list of the senators and assemblymen who keep us from having cameras \[that can levy fines\]," the mayor suggested.

"Every time there's somebody hit, it would be nice to say 'Ok, assemblyman and senator so-and-so didn't think that person's life \[was important\] ... This is our lives of our people we're talking about! This is not something cute and we've got to do something about it."

Bloomberg said he would also support speed cameras to catch drivers going too fast - a proposal that's the subject of an Assembly bill but has not yet been introduced in the Senate.

"We cannot afford to put a cop on every corner," Bloomberg said. "We're going to have to do more with technology."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/08/22/2011-08-22_mayor_bloomberg_pushes_for_traffic_light_cameras_on_every_corner.html#ixzz1Vs7X39ih