this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
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Traffic Camera Captures Woman Driving With Her Phone on Her Lap (Face Down), The State Mailed Her a $1251 'Public Safety' Ticket (www.gadgetreview.com)
submitted 12 hours ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
80 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A woman drives with both hands on the wheel. Her phone sits face-down on her lap. No officer pulls her over. No lights flash. Weeks later, a $1,251 ticket arrives in the mail. The evidence: a single frame from a Camera surveillance app. The charge: phone use while driving.

Automated camera companies market their devices as automated license plate readers — tools for catching stolen cars, flagging warrants, and aiding serious investigations.

Sold as a Crime Tool. Used as a Fine Machine.

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[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

Some towns literally just exist to extract money from nonlocals who don’t know to not go through there. There’s one near where I grew up that transitions from a 60 mph to a 30 mph zone at the bottom of a hill, so if you aren’t riding your brakes the whole way down you’re speeding. And of course the cops love to sit there and pop people with tickets for it.

[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 10 hours ago

Same sort of speed traps used to be along the only route to a casino I went to a few times. My first time driving to the casino, they were laying in wait. I got caught on the way back.

Pigs sure do love to jam people up. Bonus points if they ruin the life of a minority! There certainly are no such thing as quotas, right?

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago

Emporia, Virginia is another notorious one, right on heavily traveled I-95 as well as US-58. Virginia has front license plates, so the cars that don’t have front plates definitely aren’t from Virginia and if there’s a group of cars all going the same speed it’s the easy way to pick out the non-local. Saw it happen when I was a passenger.

[–] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

Ain't that shit considered "entrapment"?

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 hours ago

Entrapment is when a cop gets you to do something that breaks a law, and then catches you.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 4 points 8 hours ago

Entrapment has a very specific definition, and this ain't it.

It might still be an illegal speed limit change, but that's going to depend on an awful lot of details. It's certainly bad design, but the locals probably like it for the money it brings in.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

That happened to my dad too, he was going "one over the limit." It's infuriating because it's fraud and stealing.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I think that lazy shitty cops do a lot to malign common sense safety engineering that most people would otherwise be totally on board for.