Speed camera foe tries a trick license plate ID

Sean Tierney hates photo radar. So he decided to think up a creative way to challenge the system and avoid a future ticket. Tierney is not covering up or altering his license plate in any way. And he’s not selling anything.

Instead, the Tempe high-tech businessman ordered a customized Arizona license plate of zeroes, O’s and D’s that blend together in a way that could make it confusing for a photo-enforcement citation reviewer to confirm the license plate.

Tierney doesn’t know if it will work, and doesn’t plan to test it by speeding by one of the cameras.

But he wrote on his blog that he hopes others will pay the $25 fee for a new vanity plate to take advantage of the 2,187 possible combinations.

“Photo radar (ticks) me off, to be quite frank, and rather than do some little trick to conceal the plate, I thought of a creative way to deal with it,” Tierney said. “Who knows if it’s going to help? I’m just telling people how to do it if they want to.”

Tierney, who has moved from Scottsdale to Tempe but still owns a home in Scottsdale, is the CEO of JumpBox, a Tempe-based start-up company that produces “virtual appliances” so software programs can be more quickly installed.

The 31-year-old said he’s received one photo-radar ticket on a surface street and, despite previously driving Loop 101 on a regular basis, never received a ticket from Scottsdale’s controversial freeway trial program that ran from January through October.

Tierney is opposed to the cameras primarily because Scottsdale calls them a safety measure, but Tierney said he believes the main intent is to make a profit.

The Loop 101 photo-enforcement program, which used in-pavement sensors and cameras to capture images of speeders on the freeway, has been a money maker for Scottsdale, bringing in close to $800,000 in General Fund profit.

It also has generated an additional $450,000 for its court-enhancement fund.

Final numbers are not available as citations continue to work their way through the court system.

Tierney also believes people become so preoccupied with avoiding a ticket, that more dangerous traffic conditions are created.

The Scottsdale City Council is scheduled on Jan. 16 to receive an analysis of the freeway photo-enforcement program, including crash, traffic flow and traffic volume data.

The council will then decide whether to resume the Loop 101 program.

Sgt. Mark Clark, a Scottsdale police spokesman, said photographs from each speeding detection are reviewed by Redflex, a private company that operates the city’s photo-enforcement program.

A notice of citation is issued if there’s a match between the person driving and information registered with the Motor Vehicle Division, which is obtained by a photo of the license plate.

“If the license plate is unreadable, there’s nothing they can do with it and the activation is rejected,” Clark said.

When told about the concept of Tierney’s plate, Clark said he didn’t know if it would work. “The only way we found to beat a photo-radar system is don’t speed,” Clark said.