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Mon 27 Jun, 2005 09:07 pm
A Pennsylvania company expects to make money from red-light scofflaws by selling them a spray-on product that prevents the camera from picking up license plate numbers.
But before Phantom Plate Inc. can start counting its money in Houston, it may face a battle in the City Council or the Legislature.
Houston Police Department Lt. Robert Manzo said the city may want to consider an ordinance or a state law against PhotoBlocker.
"So people are already gearing up to defeat the system, huh?" Manzo asked. "We're not happy to hear this product is available and already being marketed to Houston before the cameras are even installed. This is obviously going to be a concern, and it may be something we have to address with the Legislature."
Then again, according to a company official, that could increase sales, which was the case after Illinois officials recently banned PhotoBlocker.
"Right after they did that, our sales just picked up in Illinois," said Joe Scott, the company's marketing director. "For us, it was a marketing tool. By them making it illegal, they are admitting that this is a very effective tool."
Councilman Adrian Garcia said he doesn't think such camera blockers are effective. He likened them to buying "swamp land" as a sound investment.
"I have yet to find anyone who can offer, with any degree of credibility, that it works," said Garcia, who chairs the council's public safety committee. "It's much easier to comply with the law than to put at risk your vehicle, your time, your effort, just to find out that it doesn't work. ... Obey the law, and all of this is irrelevant."
Scott said the company has been getting calls from Houston since the city announced it wanted to install the cameras.
"And this is just the beginning," Scott said. "As soon as they start putting in the red-light cameras and people start getting stung by these cameras, the numbers will increase."
Scott's company offers several products designed to help drivers protect themselves from traffic tickets, but the most popular is PhotoBlocker, a high-gloss spray for license plates that creates a glare when photographed.
The gloss, which is unnoticeable to the naked eye, renders photographs useless in identifying plate numbers.
The product, offered only on the Internet, is legal here and sells for $29.99 for a can containing enough spray to cover four license plates for life.
In December, the City Council passed an ordinance approving the use of cameras to catch red-light runners.
The plans were stalled while the city fought legislative attempts to ban red-light cameras. After winning in Austin, Houston officials have begun the process of seeking bids to install the technology.
HPD has said one system under review would include sensors connected to traffic lights. The cameras would take digital pictures of vehicles entering the intersection when sensors indicate a red light. The infraction would be captured on video.
The images then would be wired to the city's vendor for owner identification. The city also is considering giving the vendor a cut of the revenue and setting up decoy cameras as deterrents in some areas.
I love the stuff
i bought some and love it......
got mine here in Canada and know it save me once.
that paid for it self there.
my 2cents
found the link
found the link
http://www.photoblockercanada.com
i looked at the can in my car....
I don't need any, since I stop for the lights. But I posted the story because it related to the cameras Houston is planning to install soon.
I am skeptical about this. Perhaps the emporer has no clothes?
I am pretty sure that police departments buy normal cameras that just record normal light. There isn't any reason why they wouldn't do this as normal light exists, and this is the cheapest and a perfectly good way to catch the plates of scofflaws.
Normal cameras (in addition to being cheap and effective) have the added advantage that if the plate looks normal to the naked eye, it will look normal on the camera.
Why would police buy cameras that could be blocked by an "invisible" spray.
I suspect these cans contain little more than water, or perhaps a clear acrylic.
They will probably be long gone with your money before you find out the hard way.
There are those who maintain that it would be more effective to extend the yellow light one second and would not cost drivers all those fines. Unless of course the city is counting all that money with slavering lips.
yeah
You can probably buy the stuff thats in this magical spray at home depot for a third of the price, assuming it actually works. I try not to run red lights as well, but there is something about AI giving people tickets that i just don't like. Im a firm believer that the officer who is the witness to the crime should be the one who writes the ticket. And yes, that goes for the cop standing on the bridge with the radar and the other pulling people over.
Photoblocker
Hay,
I just found a story about This product, It was bannned with a 1000.00 fine for use, the dealears can not sell it or advertise it any more because is was working so well, the funn thing was after they banned the stuff the sales took off from the
Photoblocker Canada site in .....lol
so many people never knew about it till it was banned
News story
ebrown_p wrote:I am skeptical about this. Perhaps the emporer has no clothes?
I am pretty sure that police departments buy normal cameras that just record normal light. There isn't any reason why they wouldn't do this as normal light exists, and this is the cheapest and a perfectly good way to catch the plates of scofflaws.
Normal cameras (in addition to being cheap and effective) have the added advantage that if the plate looks normal to the naked eye, it will look normal on the camera.
Why would police buy cameras that could be blocked by an "invisible" spray.
I suspect these cans contain little more than water, or perhaps a clear acrylic.
They will probably be long gone with your money before you find out the hard way.
The cameras employ a flash even in daylight to get the plate number. The spray is supposed to bounce the flash back to obscure the plate. Don't know if it works and don't intend to find out.
We used to have photo radar and you knew if they took your picture because you could see the flash.
The cameras made their debut today. No word on how it's going yet.
We've had those lights here forever.
It is not impossible to get out of the ticket. I remember this from the big "someone borrowed my car" case. I'll have to look up the details.
I do believe that the guy had to prove he was somewhere else at the time that the photo was taken -- a time card from work or something.
I'm not sure of the optics aspect but I imagine it is possible to disrupt the light. They make eyeglasses now that do not reflect so I imagine such things can be done elsewhere.
Of course, they could switch to infrared film or something and that would probably put them right back on top.
That said, anyone who runs red lights is a lunatic and should be heavily fined. Anyone caught with this spray should have their license suspended.
They have a brand new cop car in Tomball. I first learned of it this morning. It looks like anybody's car. No lights on top. Dark gray. When he flashes his lights, it happens where the blinkers are. If you catch the side of the car in just the right light, you can read "Tomball Traffic Control" on it. He had sombody pulled over.
That not being able to tell it's a cop car thing is spooky. There have been too many cases of nut-jobs pulling people over pretending to be cops and.... not being very... umm.... nice.
I would never pull over for a car I didn't know was a cop car. I would quietly drive to the nearest, well lit, populated place before stopping.
A year or two ago I read an article in Smithsonian about DARPA. Several new paint technologies were mentioned. One was a camaflauge paint that would mimic its surroundings, so, for instance, army tanks would not have to be repainted for desert wars v. jungle wars.
It sounds like some of these new paint technologies are realities now.
I plan to drive just a bit more carefully now. Not that I purposely do crazy things. Just a precaution.
In the last five weeks three local teenagers have been killed in two separate accidents because they have been speeding on twisting local roads.
Probably they've been illegally drinking as well.
We have no "local" police--the towns and townships are too small. Law enforcement comes from the State Cops.
Many parents are screaming for "increased police presence" in the area.
I don't think "increased police presence" can confer maturity on teenagers, but Kilroy cameras and paranoia could make kids drive with an eye to the consequences of their actions.
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