Photo-radar idea shields adulterers
By Trent Seibert
Denver Post Capitol Bureau
Tuesday, April 02, 2002 - Photo radar was designed to keep roads safe, not to catch two-timing cads, says a state legislator who wants to change the state's photo-radar law to keep spouses from uncovering an affair.
Right now, when speeders are caught on photo radar, the photo, complete with image of driver and passenger, is mailed to the driver's home with a $40 ticket.
House Minority Leader Dan Grossman said he wants to amend a photo-radar bill so that those photos snapped of speeders - along with the potential evidence of someone's cheatin' heart - stay with police.
"I call it the adulterers amendment," said the Denver Democrat, who also said he's been a faithful partner to his fiancee.
"The purpose is to increase traffic safety, not to catch people cheating on their wives," he said.
Grossman's plan could add a new twist to a years-long, passionate debate over photo radar. It could even become part of the debate Wednesday, when the photo-radar bill comes up in a House committee.
Supporters of photo radar say it's a great way to keep cars from speeding through school zones and allows traffic cops to make better use of their time. Opponents say photo radar is a cash cow for cities, unreliable and an invasion of privacy.
Grossman's proposal, though, raises the spectre of an adulterer's worst nightmare: a husband coming home to find his wife has discovered that she's not the only one sitting in her spouse's passenger seat.
It's happened at least once in Colorado.
A spouse sweating bullets frantically called Commerce City police after his picture was taken by photo radar. He admitted to police that he was having an affair.
"He 'fessed up. I told him to come in and pay the fine, before his wife paid it, and he could have the photo," police spokeswoman Elaine Rowe told The Post in 1998. "He paid the fine and destroyed the evidence."
Such rumors about the dark side of photo radar have buzzed about the legislature for years, including whispers about a Colorado legislator who had to come up with a Texas-sized tale for his wife after getting snapped by photo radar with a woman he had no business being with.
Denver police and other local police departments say they don't know of any such incident.
Grossman's proposal, which he said he's doing to garner support for photo radar among his fellow lawmakers, has some privacy advocates scratching their heads.
"Of all the concerns with photo radar, this is pretty far down the list," said Stephen Keating of the Denver-based Privacy Foundation. "If someone was nailed for having an affair after getting a speeding ticket, some people would call that just deserts."
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