Everyone hates red-light traffic cameras, and someone in Arizona decided to do something about them by re-aiming cameras at the ground.
Someone in Tucson isn't happy about the city's red-light cameras.A vandal re-aimed most of the traffic cameras at collision-prone intersections over the weekend in an apparent attempt to keep them from snapping photos of speeders and red-light runners, an official said.
This doesn't strike me as "vandalism" since there was no damage or defacement. What this looks like to me is civil disobedience.
It would be more efficient, though, to use some sort of spraying device to shoot paint at the camera lens from the ground or from a car. Not that I'd advocate such a thing.
(HT: Instapundit.)
painting over the camera lenses would, of course, be vandalism.
I've seen pictures showing other red-light cameras where the camera is turned more subtly away from the intersection, such that it is still effectively disabled, but it isn't immediately obvious to the casual eye. Then again, I'm not sure how well that would work in terms of delaying repairs. Certainly here in Dallas, every place I've seen one of the red-light cameras also has multiple cameras mounted on the stoplight poles so there's already a view of anyone who might interfere with the operation of the red-light cams. (Assuming, of course, the regular cams are monitored in realtime.)
The English use a more extreme method to disable their traffic cameras or Gatsos as they're known in the UK. The Haitian Necklace - a tire filled with gasoline then set afire.
Here's a link with pics at Speedcam.
Rick: Perhaps some sort of washable ink or chalk powder? Or maybe just hooding the cameras with plastic bags or something.
GT: Ah, that's the ticket!