Road ‘Safety’ Cameras Should Be Outlawed

Shôn Ellerton, April 21, 2026
It’s time to put a stop to the proliferation of so-called road safety cameras. They’re wrong and you know it!

Some of us like driving our cars.

I do.

The freedom of rambling around the countryside and taking in the sights. Going to new places, and simply exploring new places. I generally find the experience of driving to be therapeutic.

But that experience ends when I approach the city reaching the first set of traffic lights. The experience turns to frustration and paranoia.

I live in Australia, and unfortunately, we have been obsessed with trying to make our roads ‘safer’ by continuously adding more and more road safety cameras, many of them linked to AI to determine if the driver is wearing a seatbelt or, God forbid, turning the head to glance at a mobile phone that just happens to be resting on the passenger seat.

It’s all revenue raising, of course, at the expense of punishing drivers who breach a new safety law that conveniently came into being. Over the decades, we’ve criminalised not wearing seat belts, sitting in the back of the pick-up truck, looking at an electronic device while driving, going faster than 25kph when passing a stationary emergency vehicle on the side of the road and even, purportedly sticking one’s elbows out of the window. Although, I’ve never heard of anyone being charged for that offence.

In essence, the Government makes up new pieces of legislation and then employs AI-enabled road ‘safety’ cameras to rake in revenue. In desperation, those nation states being in a perpetual state of debt often resort to such tactics to fill up their coffers as a type of tax.

Road safety cameras are nothing new, of course. I first came across one during the late-90s on the north side of London near Brent Cross on an overbridge crossing the North Circular Road. The back of the camera was a conspicuous yellow to serve as a warning to motorists. Predictably, there was an uptake in rear-end collisions when drivers panicked and slammed on their brakes just in time before being snapped by the camera.

I was around thirty at that time and had a good solid fifteen years of driving experience under my belt. I had a couple of warnings due to speeding, both of which happened in regional Wales where a local bobby with a radar gun ushered me to stop on the side of the road in a small residential village. He politely informed me that I was going ‘a bit quick’ and reminded me that next time he might not be so forgiving.

But that’s the thing. There’s a human involved who can make an assessment whether the driver really is, in fact, a dangerous driver.

Let’s start with the basics.

So-called safety cameras primarily target speed. Doesn’t matter if the road in which the speed camera is situated is safe even with a much higher speed limit. Doesn’t matter if the driver had to pass another vehicle going way too slow and having to speed up to get to the other side as soon as possible. Doesn’t matter if the idiot in front of the driver is swerving around all over the place but being below the speed limit isn’t noticed by the camera. But if one goes a few kph higher than the speed camera, it’s likely you’ll get a speeding ticket in the post.

Speed cameras do not save lives. They are purely there to generate revenue. However, safe driving does save lives. Speed cameras do not have the ability to assess dangerous driving. However, they are certainly accurate in recording your speed, but speed is not the only defining factor for assessing what is safe driving or not.

However, the Kevins and the Karens, our ‘wonderful’ virtuous wowser brigade will facetiously give you the tut-tut and say, ‘If you are going the speed limit, you’re not going to get caught. There’s no excuse.’ But let’s face it, our overly road-safety conscious Kevins and Karens have no sense of humour, don’t like fun, and most importantly, don’t like anyone else having fun. They’re a dull and boring lot.

I have a big problem with being snapped or monitored by road cameras.

Why?

Because, these days, you don’t even need to speed or do anything illegal to be caught on camera. The power of today’s technology is such that every vehicle can be caught and recorded on camera including the interior of the car using quite advanced imaging solutions. Those recordings are analysed by AI to make an assessment if someone was doing something wrong. For example, briefly taking off a seat belt, or fishing around the passenger seat looking for something, or even drinking and eating at the wheel.

It’s similar to the dirty tactics of randomised breath testing, which I declare as morally and lawfully wrong because you are making an assumption that someone has done something illegal without due grounds. In the United States, for example, randomised breath testing conflicts with the Fourth Amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Another major problem with road ‘safety’ cameras is that they often induce a sense of paranoia with many drivers.

Did I just get zapped by an unmarked car with a speed camera just now?

Should I go back and check just for piece-of-mind?

And then the anxiety kicks in every time the postie comes to deliver your mail.

Oh no. The letter looks awfully official. I bet it’s a speeding ticket.

And there it is, your speeding ticket with no course of rebuttal except going to Court which most nobody does.

Folks, this is clearly wrong.

However, there is a glitter of hope amongst the hopeless ambivalence of our over-compliant citizenry.

Of all places in the world, the nation that is becoming more and more authoritarian in the way it handles its citizens, the United Kingdom, breeds some of the most original and rebellious actors to the scene. This is why I love the British so much. They are not only the best inventors and thinkers on the planet, but are the most idiosyncratic and eccentric of all people, and do love to put up a good fight against tyranny. Although, saying that, the Russians, who also live in a different kind of authoritarianism, are an amazingly creative and resourceful lot.

Historically, the Brits have always had to battle against successive waves of Government power, much of it being abused and badly handled by the uncomfortable arrangement between permanently elected civil servants and easily corruptible ministers. Personally, I think the Westminster system can be dramatically improved by introducing a strong charter of citizen’s rights,  ridding itself of its civil servants, cutting unnecessary government bodies and their associated quasi-government groups, known as the  Quangos, entirely!

When the Brits get angry, they get very angry.

During the late 90s and early 2000s, thousands and thousands of stationary speed cameras were erected on roads in the English countryside. I remember such a road somewhere near to the small town of Bicester not far north of Oxford. It was the A4421, a single-carriageway paved road connecting Buckingham and Bicester. Along this stretch of rural road, a series of speed cameras were erected although, I couldn’t understand why. It was a rural road with little in the way of private residences along it.

Not long after they were built, I drove down that very same stretch of road and saw that every speed camera had been chopped down, presumably with an acetylene torch or an angle grinder. I smiled with pleasure and wondered who had the balls to do this act of heroism. Probably some very pissed off locals, some of which enjoy a bit of a swift cruise down the country roads. One of the last bastion of freedoms that we enjoy these days. And then some city Kevin or Karen-like politician sticks their proverbial probiscis into the affairs of the countryfolk, well…you know what follows!

I wish we had more of these ‘heroes’ here in Australia. A rebellious streak of larrikinism, mixed with courage, curiosity, and common sense. However, the Crocodile Dundee or the Steve Irwin types of Australian are being replaced with the snotty, vengeful, whiny, and woke leftards who control the cities.

And the Australian authorities are acutely aware of this and take full advantage of this.

For example, in South Australia, we have given powers to contractors working for the Fines Agency to park unmarked cars at prescribed positions across the state and take sneaky candid photos of drivers who have gone past the speed limit. The worst part is that they have quotas to meet and often park at locations that are inherently safe for well above the prescribed speed limit.

To put it mildly, they’re a bunch of sneaky bastards and know exactly where to park to maximise the amount they could get from speeding drivers. And sometimes, they flout the rules to do so.

I caught an unmarked car armed with a speed camera in the wrong place. You know what these cars look like. They are often vans, utes, or large cars with quite conspicuous patches of rectangular dark patches behind side and rear-facing windows. They are often white or black in colour and clean in appearance. They’re usually quite obvious.

I don’t like unmarked cars as speeding traps, and when I encounter them, I park the car somewhere, walk up to them, tap on their windows, and see who’s behind the scenes.

On one occasion, the driver rolled down his window, and I had a polite conversation with him. He was employed but was doing as he was told. He parked at one of the allocated positions as can be found on the South Australian Police Data Cube website and told me that he wasn’t allowed to park on a blind bend.

To be fair, the conversation went well.

He was just doing his job and he obviously had himself to support through that means.

On another occasion, I came across an unmarked ute, as depicted in the photo in the header of this article. He was not in one of the official prescribed positions  and parked himself on the verge of the road near to a roundabout at the bottom of a long stretch of hill on a wide road.

I walked up to the window without fear and knocked on it.

No answer.

I knocked again.

And I just heard a muffled yell and a knock from within. Presumably to mind my own business and shove off.

My welcome being clearly worn away, I walked off without much delay.

That bastard was there all afternoon and all night.

In retaliation, I took some photos and posted them on our neighbour watch website to warn others of an unmarked vehicle who clearly had not parked on one of the official prescribed positions as administered by the South Australia Police.

Finally, I’d like to recount the best countermovement against road cameras to date.

The so-called Blade Runner Movement.

During the last few years, London had implemented a system of cameras to monitor drivers entering certain areas of London deemed as low-emissions areas abbreviated as ULEZs (Ultra Low Emission Zones).

Every licence plate would be recorded and those not in accordance with the emissions standard would have to pay a toll or penalty which they can pay online.

This sparked an outrage with the working class and owners of small businesses who relied on their vehicles to bring supplies in or to get into and out of work.

A small group of clandestine activists wearing balaclavas began targeting ULEZ cameras and cut them down with reciprocal saws or angle grinders. Thousands of ULEZ cameras had been destroyed much to the chagrin of the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who has belligerently resurrected every one that went down with a new one costing the taxpayer about twenty thousand pounds for each camera that goes down.

Clearly, the message is not going down with London’s left-wing authoritarian Big Brother government.

There are several YouTube videos of members of the Blade Runner Movement chopping down these cameras, many of them in broad daylight. The commentary is so British and, often, quite funny. Almost like a commentator for a snooker match.

‘Ah yes. Here we have a dedicated fella of the movement armed with his newly-purchased Bosch reciprocal saw. You can see the steadfast enthusiasm in his gait while he approaches the offending camera. Our stoic hero maintains a keen lookout for any sign of the blue lights of justice, but none can be seen at this stage of the game. Swiftly and zealously, he cranks up his saw, and … look at that! Look at the sparks coming off that… and… he’s nearly there! Nearly there! And yes, there comes down the pole with the camera. Unfortunately, there was a traffic light on it, but such are the consequences. A very well undertaken job overall!’

And it is genuinely funny to watch.

You see these masked wonders with their saws and you watch the cameras crash down on the pavement.

I know, I know. It’s officially vandalism, but hey, did the public ever get to vote on implementing these deeply unpopular cameras all around London?

No!

With every road ‘safety’ camera that gets cut down by an angry citizen, I clap my hands with joy, and that’s something I don’t do very often.

They’re intrusive. They’re wrong, both morally and legally for those nation states who protect personal privacy. They cannot distinguish whether a driver had a valid reason to speed or not. They are unable to hear out the reasons why the driver had been speeding or breaking some other road-related rule. They induce paranoia and anxiety through the waiting game of expecting something nasty to be delivered to you through the post.

Road ‘safety’ cameras should be rid of once and for all and the Government will have to find some other outlet to fill up their near-empty coffers.