Beat The Camera | Avoid Speed camera Detection - Spray Makes Licence Plate INVISIBLE

'Photo Blocker' foils traffic cameras

Spray makes license plates reflective
By Greg Avery, Camera Staff Writer
June 30, 2003

Hate the idea of impersonal Boulder cameras ticketing you for running a red light or driving 36 mph in a 25 mph zone? The antidote might be in a red aerosol can.

Beat The Camera.com sells a spray to stop camera-generated tickets by making your license plates so reflective it blinds the spying cameras when their flash goes off.

Tests show that "Photo Blocker," a product sold over the Internet by Beat The Camera.com, can help drivers beat traffic-enforcement camera tickets by coating their license plates with a spray.

The company has sold thousands of the $29.99 cans that can cover up to six license plates, Scott said.

Boulder has a mobile photo radar van and stationary pole-mounted cameras at the intersections of 28th Street and Arapahoe Avenue, 28th and Canyon Boulevard and Valmont Road and 47th Street.

The system issued 18,323 tickets last year.

Unlike some other states, Colorado limits camera enforcement to intersections or to ticketing people driving at least 10 mph over the speed limit in neighborhoods and active school zones.
Capt. John Lamb, a Denver traffic officer, participated in a Denver television station's test of the Beat The Camera.com product. The test replicated a car driving 30 mph through a 20 mph school zone.

The spray successfully obscured the license plate numbers, and the pictures showed the license plate on the test car to be a glowing white blob, Lamb said.

The spray appears to be legal under Colorado law, Lamb said, but he worries about the implications of its use.

"From a police perspective, I think it's irresponsible for anyone to use a device that would defeat our system so they could essentially speed in residential areas and school zones," Lamb said.

Mike Gardener-Sweeney, who oversees Boulder's traffic-enforcement cameras, said the tell-tale glow of the Photo Blocker spray hasn't turned up in the city's pictures.

ACS, the company that runs and maintains the city's cameras, has assured Sweeney that if such sprays became commonplace, the company could switch to other kinds of flashes to make the spray obsolete.

Sweeney said he doesn't see the spray's allure.

"It just seems like somebody's trying to evade prosecution," he said. "I don't see what that's about."

To the people behind Photo Blocker, the spray represents a small way of fighting back. Scott envisions a day when cameras are everywhere on America's roads and all drivers are treated as criminals to be ticketed when their speedometers creep over the limit.

"I agree with making roads safer, but when it starts costing you money as a regular person, that's different. ... Then it's personal," Scott said.