Smile, you're on Candid Camera
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Section 40 of the Road Traffic Act 1991 empowers highway authorities to install and maintain "structures and equipment on or near highways for the detection of traffic offences". Section 23 empowers the evidence provided by such equipment to be used in the prosecution of speeding offences and failure to comply with traffic lights.
The GATSO camera is becoming a familiar sight on the streets and roads in this country. It is an impartial robot inside a grey box with a single peep hole, and is allegedly bullet proof, bomb proof and vandal proof. A small camera holds 30m of film. It can superimpose data readings on to the frame of each film and a "smart card" recorder records culprits' details for use by the police. Two pictures are token, half a second apart, from the rear: the camera is activated when a speeding vehicle is detected by radar or pressure sensors in the road surface.
Each picture carries a record of the date, time, location and speed of each offender. Number plates can normally be read off the picture, but if there is any doubt, a Tamron vertical video camera enables the picture to be produced on a TV screen and blown up or enhanced. Offences of breaking speed limits and failing to comply with traffic lights carry Fixed penalties offences but if the case goes to court hearing the maximum penalty for either is £1,000. The police must serve notice of prosecution within 14 days of the offence and photographs are not admissible in evidence unless a copy has been served on a defendant at least seven days before the hearing. Magistrates' courts can award three penalty points for traffic-light offences and up to six penalty points for exceeding speed limts, depending on the seriousness of the offences. Drivers can also be disqualified...be warned!