Israeli Police have been instructed by the Deputy Attorney General Mumi Lamberger to cease issuing tickets based on speed cameras catching cars traveling above the speed limit until an in-depth investigation can be completed into the serviceability of all stationary speed cameras.

Channel two news reported the change in policy on Sunday evening. the traffic division of the Israeli police said that the issue is indeed being looked into. “We would like to remind the drivers across the country that the speed cameras will continue to document reckless driving. The decision regarding whether to issue a ticket based of that documentation will be made at the end of the investigative process.” The decision was made following many cases of court decisions and complaints by citizens of being forced to pay exorbitant sums based on traffic violations that were not reflective of the situation at hand.

Since the inception of the digital speed camera manufactured by Malam Team and its use in giving tickets in Israel in 2013, more than 100 such cameras have been st up across Israel. These cameras have printed hundreds of thousands of tickets and caused thousands of drivers to lose their license. For many others it has caused them to pay exorbitant sums that add up to millions of shekels worth of fines.

It is important to note that regular laser activated speed cameras, that are not Malam Team, will still be operational throughout the country.

In fact, this is the victory of quite a few drivers who have long claimed that the cameras in question are unreliable. The start was still in the old cameras, when drivers received speeding summonses, and they banded together and appealed the fine to the court, claiming that the cameras were unreliable.

They began a thorough examination based on the data presented by the representative of the Standards Institution, and then it became clear that the tests did not match everything that was claimed. A few weeks ago, when the conclusions reached the Technion, it was decided to hold a joint meeting of all the relevant parties, and at the end the State Attorney decided to instruct the police not to issue additional summonses based on the cameras.

Various sources involved in the matter say that this is a blow to the state coffers, which was enriched at the expense of citizens who received large fines of NIS 750 per summons.

In light of this, the deputy state prosecutor ordered that the roads continue to be photographed, but for the time being not to send summonses. It should be noted that these are hundreds of millions of shekels collected from the public in recent years as a result of reports that came after a photograph from these cameras.

The police said in response: “The issue is indeed under investigation, but speed cameras will continue to document speeding, and enforcement decisions will be made at the end of the tests.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)