Who Got These Lavish Gifts and Bribes?

I stumbled upon this story thanks to Knoxviews. It seems that, up in New Jersey, there's a lawsuit filed by Aaron Rosenberg, former nationwide lead salesman for Redflex Traffic Systems, which, you might have guessed, supplies traffic cameras to cities across the country, including in Tennessee.

In his lawsuit Rosenberg contends ...

that Redflex “bestowed gifts and bribes on ... officials in dozens of municipalities within, but not limited to the following states: California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia.” He said Redflex bribed local officials with meals, golf outings and tickets to professional football and baseball games. The expenses were listed as categories such as “entertainment” and “celebratory tokens,” according to the suit.

Knoxviews asks "Will the Tennessee Attorney General investigate these allegations?" If so, the shortlist of officials to look at are in towns with Redflex cameras (I suppose it's possible there are some officials Redflex tried to bribe, but failed to get cameras in those towns—guess those officials luck out and it's important to remember that everyone with the cameras probably was not bribed). That shortlist is not so easy to come up with, but some internet digging leads interesting places.

We know Redflex was in Farragut, because they sued Farragut over a state law back in 2011, and in the Knoxville News Sentinel story, Redflex said, "it has contracts with eight other Tennessee municipalities for traffic camera services."

Redflex bragged about how successful their traffic cameras had been in Morristown. Jackson put out a press release about having Redflex cameras. Jonesborough had cameras from Redflex. Johnson City had the cameras. There's a Facebook page for them in Selmer. Knoxville had Redflex, but decided not to renew their contract back in 2008. Kingsport says they have a contract with them. That's seven.

The eighth is probably Oak Ridge, which debated this winter whether to continue their contract with Redflex. Their relationship with Redflex has long been a source of... shall we say... interesting news. Back in 2010, Oak Ridge police chief David Beams took a trip to Phoenix to testify on behalf of Redflex in a lawsuit. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Redflex provided Beams with a limo, three nights in the Ritz-Carlton, and prime rib. Beams objected to reports that the trip was a "luxury vacation," but he retired shortly after the story came out.

If limos, steak, and the Ritz-Carlton are what you get after you already have the cameras, I do hope someone looks into what the bribes looked like. I'm curious to see how you top that.

I'll also say this — as aggravated as I get with Republicans' efforts to coalesce power in the state at the state level instead of passing along the kind of freedom they want from Federal regulation to cities who maybe don't want such a tight level of state oversight, stories like this illustrate why they've taken that approach. If your community has the redlight cameras they have not because they're the best on the market or the most economical, but because someone got to go on a golf trip or got a steak, haven't they proven that they need tight oversight?