County uses cameras to catch toll offenders

The county has enlisted new help in catching chronic toll-road abusers: a group of cameras that catch people who owe thousands of dollars in unpaid tolls. The effort is aimed at catching the top 500 non-toll payers, who owe between $2,000 and $30,000 — though anyone with the mettle to rack up $30,000 in unpaid tolls really deserves some kind of award, we think, even if it is given in jail.

The cameras give offenders three chances to speed through toll lanes without paying; on the first two, nothing happens, but the third time they try to cheat the system, they're caught. "We put them in jail," Randy Johnson, an assistant chief in the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office, told the Chronicle. "If they owe a lot of money, we don't write them a ticket. We arrest them and tow their car." The system began with a single camera in August; there are four now, the county has plans to install 20 more in the coming weeks. The cameras cost $28,000 each, which means the system will have a total price tag of $672,000 — but it's worth the money, Fred Philipson, assistant director of services for the Harris County Toll Road Authority, said. Philipson said the unpaid tolls and fees will pay for the cameras, and they could also cut down on future offenses: "People tend not to repeat the process if there's a negative involved," he said. We guess getting hounded by collection agencies wasn't enough of a negative for some people.

The camera system is operated by American Traffic Solutions, the same company that runs Houston's red-light camera system. It's the only real-time camera system of its kind in the country.