These things are about generating money for the cities that use them, not about safety, so way to go!


It goes without saying, but we’re gonna go ahead and say it anyway: Nobody likes getting a speeding ticket. And that’s especially true when said ticket isn’t issued by a human officer, but from a machine set up to catch unwary motorists off guard. If only there was some way to get back that lost sense of justice…

One man from Bluff City, Tennessee came up with a rather inventive way of sticking it back to The Man. It seems that the officer in charge of the Bluff City Police Department’s website had gone on sick leave, and nobody noticed when the time came to renew the PD’s URL. Whoops.

Computer network designer Brian McCrary, who received a $90 ticket from a speed camera earlier in the year, saw a unique opportunity and seized it, picking up the domain rights from Go Daddy. Want to know what the Bluff City Police Department’s old website looks like now? Of course you do.




  1. Foobar the Fabulous says:

    Both links are to the hijacked site. Where’s the source article?

  2. natefrog says:

    Yeah, where’s the original article?

    [Fixed – UD]

  3. MikeN says:

    Can’t someone make up a fake license plate with numbers of city council members, mayor, etc and run all the cameras?

  4. Improbus says:

    I love the taste of sweet justice with my morning coffee.

  5. KMFIX says:

    This is a much better approach than the one used by a man in Arizona that shot at a photo enforcement van and killed the guy inside it.

    http://myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/photo_radar_van_driver_shot_041909

  6. jman says:

    good for him

  7. natefrog says:

    Thanks, UD.

  8. Luc says:

    “…but from a machine set up to catch unwary motorists off guard.”

    By “off guard” do you mean speeding?

  9. xjonx says:

    @Luc #8
    Technically yes, but speed cameras and sudden changes in limits with no public safety/quantity of life reason is not sporting. It’s akin to hunting at a salt lick. But what more would you expect from someone who hangs out with criminals all day? With money grubbing politicians for bosses.

  10. Buzz says:

    Traffic cams are a scam to red light runners, speeders and drunks. Adjust your scamometer accordingly.

  11. Cap'nKangaroo says:

    Went across Arizona several times in the past month. There were numerous sites on I-10 and I-40 where the State Police had traffic speed cameras set up. You would have to be oblivious to everything to get a ticket from these sites. Several orange signs are set up warning you of speed camera ahead (like 1 mile and 1/2 mile ahead). The marked State Police vehicle was in plain sight from at least 1/8 of a mile away.

    How anyone could miss the warnings and still be speeding as they pass these sites? I would love to see the number of tickets per hour that come from this particular form of speed camera setup. I can’t believe it is cost effective.

  12. Rich says:

    “Traffic cams are a scam to red light runners, speeders and drunks. Adjust your scamometer accordingly.”

    This poster is correct! BUT- Even as I know I should obey the speed limit and not run red lights, I also know on some level the cameras are wrong for several reasons.

    BTW the domain-napper was alot more restrained than I would have been. Think “The world’s largest collection of zoophile media.”

  13. raddad says:

    Traffic safety should be a service of state and local governments. It shouldn’t be a revenue source. All traffic enforcement fines should go 100% to state highway safety construction. None to the bottom line in any government budget. Then there will be no temptation to game the system.

  14. Rick says:

    I know this is highly illegal, but wouldn’t it be a good thing for up and coming snipers to “practice” on traffic cameras? I’m sure they’re quite expensive to replace.

  15. whodatlady says:

    While it is true that, for the most part, the cameras catch those who are breaking the law, sometimes they fire with no apparent reason.

    I recently had to waste half a day in city court to challenge a red light ticket I received. Both the ticket and the photo taken by the camera showed “0 mph” as the speed. The photo showed my vehicle at a stop behind the white stopping line, and that the light was indeed red. My time, the court’s time, and the court’s money wasted on a camera that ticketed me for stopping at a red light.

    Given that, I do think that the cameras can be scammy. What if I hadn’t taken the time to look closely at that ticket? How many people don’t, then pay it out just to get rid of it?


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