Lobbying and Red Light Cameras
[From Red-light camera law born with help of political insiders -- chicagotribune.com]
Once again, Illinois is exposed for its lobbyists and political insiders greasing legislation for connected vendors. The Tribune has done an excellent job over the last few weeks on investigating red light cameras. In this article, they illuminate these connections. Here are a couple of snippets, but read the article for the full details.
RedSpeed a then-2-year-old British traffic camera-maker called RedSpeed latched onto savvy Illinois political insiders and came to dominate Chicago’s lucrative suburban market even though it had never before operated in the U.S.
So aggressive was the push that one suburban police chief recommended that his town hire RedSpeed a week before it was even incorporated in Illinois.
. . .
There are other curiosities. RedSpeed’s sole U.S. operation is in west suburban Lombard, and it markets itself as the only Illinois-based firm in the highly technical red-light camera business. Yet the corporate structure is topped by a holding company whose CEO lives in Staten Island, N.Y., and works in the office of a Manhattan ophthalmologist.
RedSpeed got a jump-start by quickly signing up a core group of suburbs — among them Bellwood, Berwyn, Bolingbrook, Elmwood Park, Melrose Park and Rosemont — with ties to a close network of clout-heavy lobbyists and former public officials.
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