AUTOMATED POLICING ISN'T THAT GREAT

It seems that so many times in this age that bad laws are passed with good intentions and very bad results. Automated stoplight enforcement is one of them. It seems that no one is looking at what will happen if this is passed in Cape Girardeau.

The No. 1 problem is the ticket is issued to the owner of the vehicle, not the driver. How does this affect you? Well, consider this: If you have your car worked on and the person test driving your car runs a light, you get the ticket about two weeks later, not the driver. You are the one who must go to Municipal Court and sign an affidavit saying who was driving the car at that given moment. If you can't prove who was driving your car, you must pay the fine.

Hey, welcome to Cape.

What about justice for all?

Our police chief says that 80 percent of all drivers are driving the vehicles registered to them. This means 20 percent of you are out of luck. What happened to justice for all, not just 80 percent?

Also, if you have children driving and their vehicles are registered to you get ready.

But let's talk about the economic side of it. It would be great for the city, with lots of tickets and no police officers to pay. Just Mr. Computer cranking out tickets.

What about the citizens and business people in our area? First, it is going to take a lot of time and money for our citizens to defend themselves from tickets and fines they aren't guilty of. What do you think the cost of keeping track of all the company vehicles and the exact times of who was driving them would amount to? No more employees just grabbing the keys to the nearest company vehicle and making a delivery or picking up supplies. It would be a small business person's nightmare to have our city mailing tickets two weeks later for laws that employees broke. This is especially bad if the business owner doesn't know who was driving the vehicle and can't afford to hire another person just to keep track.

Who's taking a test drive?

As long as we are on the subject, think about the car dealers. They would have to keep track of who test drove each vehicle and the date and time. Then they would have to go to court and sign an affidavit against their customers. Talk about customer relations.

Is the police chief also going to let this automated monster send tickets to fleet owners? Imagine being fleet manager for Procter & Gamble, St. Francis Medical Center, Southeast Missouri Hospital, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kelly Transportation, the city, trucking companies, cement companies, Federal Express, United Parcel Service, the U.S. Postal Service and on and on. I'm sure you can see how unfair things get when you let machines run your life.

We need more police in the streets, not fewer. Part of the major sales pitch for automated stoplight enforcement is the need for fewer officers. The automated ticket giver will never stop to help you when you need it or catch someone breaking into your home or business.

I haven't even got into the wrecks the automated system might cause or the moral and ethical issues of Big Brother watching you. Yes, I said the wrecks it could cause. Cape Girardeau already has a municipal ordinance in effect that says you may be ticketed for running a yellow light. Instead of going through on a yellow light, some motorists slam on the brakes. Some people might even stop on green lights if they have paid a few fines for tickets issued by the automated system and are camera-shy when it comes to traffic lights.

All in all, I don't live in a big city because I love small-town life. Bigger is not always better, and technology doesn't always make your life easier. Maybe some of our city officials would like big-city life better. Just a thought.

Frank K. Stoffregen is a member of the Cape Girardeau City Council, representing Ward 1.