Three Persons Hall and Group Speech Records

Author: He Jiahong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features:
V. Hohhot: Is the traffic camera "snapshot" considered "stealth photography"?
On the morning of July 11, 2005, Captain Guo Deming of the second police district of the Yiquan District Traffic Police Detachment in Hohhot introduced that the district had dedicated personnel for mobile "snapshot" patrols. The reason for assigning dedicated personnel was based on technical requirements to avoid unnecessary appeals due to shooting technology issues.
Captain Guo stated that mobile "snapshot" operations primarily targeted illegal parking on secondary roads or small streets, such as occupying blind spots illegally. Guo also mentioned that for vehicles parked in designated parking spaces but not oriented according to the arrow directions, they only provided education without penalties. Guo said that for vehicles "snapped" by the cameras, they posted notification notices, which included details such as the time, location, violation, where to handle the issue, and the name of the enforcing officer. From this perspective, they had fulfilled their duty to inform and ruled out the possibility of "stealth photography."
According to Chen Guoxue, director of the command center of the Hohhot Traffic Police Detachment, video "snapshot" is a non-offsite enforcement measure—it is monitoring, not "stealth photography."
Director Chen stated that for records of violations by motor vehicles, people can check through broadcasts, newspapers, information stations, and other methods. For vehicles with no occupants that are "snapped," a notification notice is posted in front of the car, so calling it "stealth photography" is not valid. Chen believes that the multiple query methods have fulfilled the traffic police's duty to inform.
Regarding whether the "snapshot" is legal, Gao Suzhen, director of the Legal Department of the Hohhot Traffic Police Detachment, said that based on the "Procedures for Handling Road Traffic Offenses," which states that "for violations of motor vehicles recorded by traffic technical monitoring, fines of no more than 200 yuan shall be imposed according to Article 8 of these procedures (on-site handling procedures). Traffic management departments shall provide query methods for violations recorded by traffic technical monitoring for the owners, managers, or drivers of motor vehicles to check," the traffic police's video "snapshot" is legally grounded and, in fact, a form of evidence collection in law enforcement.
At the same time, Gao Director also noted that if the party is dissatisfied with the penalty decision, they can file an appeal with the higher-level department.