Unjust Citations: Investigating Chicago's Robotic Traffic Cameras

Beginning in 2007, two reporters from the Chicago Tribune, David Kidwell and Alex Richards, launched an investigation of what seemed to be the wrongful citation of thousands of Chicagoland drivers whom were ticked by robotic cameras over a nine year period of time. Many of these tickets were dealt during a camera spike, in which case cameras that would usually give a lower number of tickets would dramatically increase the amount of tickets given in a short period of time. The Tribune gathered useful input from numerous chicagoland citizens, city officials, and traffic safety experts while their research was conducted. While reading these three red light articles, a media consumer must analyze the the reliability and credibility of the source

The Tribune immediately establishes a sense of community, acting on social responsibility by producing an article aimed to provide the public with information on a potential threat to their daily commute around the city. The main article, “Red light cameras tag thousands for undeserved tickets”, written by Kidwell and Richards begins with a strong lead, stating, “The Tribune’s analysis of more than 4 million tickets issued since 2007 and a deeper probe of individual cases revealed clear evidence in Chicago’s network of 380 cameras were caused by faulty equipment, human tinkering or both”. This lead is very direct in its goal to provide consumers with a load of frank but valuable information, encouraging the reader to then read the rest of the article to find out more about the wrongful ticketing. The investigation stemmed from three possible assertions; faulty equipment, human tinkering or both. The Tribune was able to conduct a ten month investigation which gathered evidence of thirteen thousand questionable tickets at twelve intersections in the city. The journalists did not just open the freezer, they blew the the doors off of it; providing quantitative evidence from multiple intersections around the city. According to Kidwell and

Rahim Benekohal, a traffic camera expert and engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Schofer stated, “ It looks to me like someone intervened, and as a result of that intervention there was a dramatic increase in the number of tickets.” Dr Benekohal added, “Perhaps people should get their money back.” Stand alone, these sources are credible and reliable. Within this article there are also sources that seem less credible, and therefore less reliable. In multiple instances a team of “experts” are credited to certain allegations or findings. For example, “The experts said the deviations identified by the Tribune are not supposed to happen in an automated enforcement system and should have set off warning flares from city hall to the Phoenix headquarters of the city’s longtime camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.” Although this claim could very well be truthful, it comes from a vague and seemingly nameless source which in turn hurts the