Red Light Camera Riddle In Suburban Justice
UPDATE Tuesday night: The Village of Justice’s village board has voted to put Chief of Police Gedville on administrative leave while the town attorney can conduct an investigation according to the Tribune.
Something weird is going on in the now, ironically named Justice, Illinois.
The small southwest suburban village has two red light camera locations.
RLC vendor SafeSpeed, LLC won the contract last September on the advice of the town’s police chief Robert Gedville, and the cameras went live this past June.
But, according to the Chicago Tribune, Gedville sent unsolicited emails promoting SafeSpeed’s red light camera services to over 50 other suburbs claiming he was a consultant for the company.
Not surprisingly, the Mayor of Justice says Gedville’s actions may violate the town’s policy which prevents city employees to enter into any sort of financial arrangement with a city vendor.
Interestingly, a spokesperson for SafeSpeed sounds genuinely shocked about the allegations and vehemently rejects the notion Geddville is employed by, or compensated in any way by their company.
When contacted by the Tribune, Police Chief Gedville first denied he sent the emails, then hung up on the reporter and finally said he chose the wrong words when drafting his email.
The Mayor of Justice is now looking into the matter.
But to muddy the waters even more, the newspaper points another troubling relationship involving their red light camera contract.
It turns out the principal attorney of the law firm that advised Justice on the RLC contract is a friend of the company’s founder and had done some legal work for SafeSpeed several years ago. Although, the law firm says they did reveal the previous legal work for SafeSpeed when they reviewed the contract.
Here’s the Tribune’s full story, “Justice police chief helps pick speed camera vendor, then sends out sales pitch.”
Hat Tip to: Stephen Donaldson from Camera Fraud
There appears to be injustice by virtue of the chief’s action in Justice.
This whole affair fails the smell test, big time. The city of Justice needs a new police chief. If they decide to continue with predatory ticket cameras to raise revenue that comes mostly from safe drivers, then SafeSpeed needs to be replaced also.
James,
Something odd is going on in Justice. The SafeSpeed representative does sound really surprised by her remarks, but who knows.
I would think doing something like this would have more potential downside than upside for an RLC vendor so why try it at all.
Very, very odd.
Behind every red light camera is a corrupt local government. There are no exceptions.
I live in Justice and I have received 3 tickets “Making a right on red” with the sign stating “No turn on red”, “when pedestrians are present” below it at 79th street and Cork/88th avenue. You will get a ticket regardless if pedestrians are there or not, what a joke to the village.