About 14 years ago the good folks running Chicago had a great idea. “Let’s get on to the red-light camera caper,” they said. “We can pretend we’re doing good while raising a shedload of money.”
Red-light and speeding cameras are the heroin of state governments and city officials around the world. When Chicago awarded its first red-light contract to Australian listed company Redflex in 2003, the cameras generated $30,000 in revenue. Ten years on, the cameras were pouring $100 million into the city.
Redflex supplies red-light, speed and numberplate cameras to every Australian state and our largest shopping centres. But this is not the story of Australian technology or whether red-light cameras improve safety; it’s a tale of corruption that makes you question the ethics of a whole industry.
For instance, last year the Redflex executive who successfully gained and expanded the Chicago business pleaded guilty to a US federal bribery charge, according to an FBI statement.
“As the CEO of Redflex Traffic Systems Inc, Karen Finley funnelled cash and other personal financial benefits to a City of Chicago official and his friend, knowing that the payments would help persuade the city to award red-light camera contracts to Redflex,” a plea agreement says. Benefits included golf trips, hotels and meals, as well as hiring the city official’s friend as a highly compensated contractor for Redflex. “The benefits flowed over a nine-year period … during which time the city expanded the digital automated red-light enforcement program by awarding millions of dollars in contracts to Phoenix-based Redflex.”
The Chicago city official was John Bills. This month a jury found him guilty on 20 charges of mail and wire fraud, bribery, extortion, conspiracy and tax evasion.
The FBI says Redflex first began competing for the Chicago contract in early 2003, while Finley was Redflex’s vice-president of operations. In the course of the competition, Finley learned that Bills, then a Chicago assistant transportation commissioner in charge of the city’s red-light cameras, was championing Redflex by providing pointers and inside information.
“After Redflex was awarded its first Chicago contract in approximately late May 2003, Finley hired Bills’ friend Martin O’Malley as a contractor for Redflex, in an effort to ensure that Bills would continue to provide assistance to Redflex in future contract negotiations.“
The criminal indictment says Redflex hired O’Malley as a contractor, paying him $2m.
“After Finley became CEO of Redflex in 2007, O’Malley’s commissions escalated and Bills continued to assist the company, including having at least one red-light contract ‘sole-sourced’ to Redflex. Finley states in the plea agreement that she knew Redflex was also paying personal expenses for Bills in order to buy his influence and expand Redflex’s business with the city. These expenses included meals, golf outings, rental cars, airline tickets to Phoenix, rooms at the Biltmore Hotel and other entertainment.”
From 2004 to 2012 Chicago awarded Redflex $171m in contracts. Redflex awarded Bills more than $2m in bribes. But not only did the city’s revenue go up, the number of accidents did too.
In June 2011 Bills left his job but the camera bonanza kept rolling. New mayor Rahm Emanuel plugged for more. But less than six months later the Chicago Tribune revealed connections between Redflex and the mayor and a consultant — Bills.
