An official audit of the Winnipeg, Canada photo radar and red light camera system shows that the city used misleading statistics in an attempt to cover-up the program’s failure to reduce accidents. Independent evidence cited in the report released to the public Wednesday indicates that the number of insurance claims for accidents, injuries and property damage expenses went up significantly at sites using camera enforcement in the year following the introduction of the devices.

Provincial law requires that Winnipeg Police Service conduct an evaluation of the safety effects of its photo ticket program. That evaluation claimed accidents dropped at the first twelve intersections to use cameras. Rear end collisions increased from 63 in 2003 to 84 in 2004 and 71 in 2005. Right angle collisions, however, dropped from 37 in 2003 to 15 in 2004 and 12 in 2005. On balance, the numbers looked positive.

Police data for the entire city, however, showed no change in the overall number of accidents. This raised a red flag for the auditor regarding the effectiveness of red light cameras in particular.

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City Council is poised to introduce a new automated traffic camera ordinance that could clarify any language thrown out in a pending ruling by Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge David Henderson.

Henderson held a four-hour hearing Thursday on a request by attorney Gary Stern and his wife, April, for a permanent injunction stopping the use of the cameras. The city began using the Traffipax portable cameras on Sept. 22, but the practice was halted on Dec. 5 when Henderson issued a preliminary injunction. The cameras were mainly used on Lovers Lane, Ohio 7 and in front of Harding Middle School.

Stern has maintained the city failed to follow its own ordinance by failing to publish notice of locations of the cameras; failing to erect conspicuous signs; and failing to maintain a list of locations to be monitored by the cameras. Stern also has alleged the traffic camera ordinance is unconstitutional because it makes a criminal offense a civil violation and violates the due process rights of the driver by allowing a city police officer to hear appeals of the tickets.

The city, through Assistant Law Director Costa Mastros, has maintained the city can regulate street traffic because it has home-rule authority as a charter city.

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Like the calvary rushing to the aid of the wrong troops, four Republican senators who had earlier declared battle against the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping have now proposed to give the surveillance program five years of near-bulletproof protection.

The new measure by Mike DeWine of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine would significantly expand the administration’s power to intercept U.S. citizens’ international phone calls and e-mails without obtaining a warrant — even when they have not been implicated in any crime. It also would let the surveillance continue with much less oversight than Congress demanded in previous laws.

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As it began exploring the use of red-light cameras Tuesday, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners heard from a skeptical public concerned about traffic enforcement and “Big Brother” surveillance.

“I feel a human being can make a better judgment call than a camera,” Kansas City resident Lamar Mickens told the board during an evening public forum at which about a dozen persons spoke.

“This is an encroachment on freedom,” said Jim Stoll. “I find the Big Brother syndrome to be very distasteful to me.”

A few speakers favored the cameras to deter what they see as a major cause of auto accidents. But the majority questioned whether the city is trying to protect the public or simply wants to increase revenues through more traffic tickets.

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Drivers talking on mobile phones or failing to wear seatbelts could find themselves tracked down through a widened use of road surveillance cameras, under proposals due to be floated in parliament tomorrow. The plans would form part of a major expansion of camera surveillance which critics say is already transforming Britain into the most watched country in the world.

Now, this is currently happening in the UK and not in the US. Not yet, at least. I wanted to show how a simple mechanism, to stop people from running red-lights, is now turning into a full blown ‘camera cop’. Giving up just a tiny bit of your freedom now can result in loosing it completely, down the road.