One of the new Phoenix speed cameras has already been vandalized

Valley residents despise few things more than getting caught by a speed camera.

Traffic enforcement cameras have a long, controversial history in Maricopa County. Once fairly common, they fell out of fashion after residents railed against feeling surveilled and being ticketed by third-party vendors and not actual cops. Many red-light cameras have remained, but speed enforcement cameras have largely disappeared. GOP state Sen. Wendy Rogers is even running a bill this year that would allow residents to decide for themselves whether to have speed cameras in their cities.

That bill has yet to be signed into law, but speed cameras have already made a comeback in Phoenix. Late last month, the city activated new speed cameras on certain roadways. For the first month, speeding drivers will receive only a warning. After that, the real speeding tickets will start going out.

How does Phoenix feel about the speed cameras? At least one Valley resident has made his or her views known. In the Phoenix subreddit on Tuesday, one user posted a photo showing that someone had toppled and beaten up the speed enforcement camera at Thunderbird Road and 19th Avenue.

As other Reddit users pointed out, it seems Phoenix should have seen this coming. “These new cameras are so short and ripe for vandalism,” one person wrote. “The old speed cameras they used to have were on a giant pole.” Wrote someone else: “It was only a matter of time!”

Phoenix Street Transportation Department spokesperson Lauren Evans said the city is aware of the vandalized camera and that the company that manages the cameras — Verra Mobility — has already fixed it and put it back online. It’s the only speed camera that has been meaningfully vandalized so far, Evans said.

“The only other vandalism so far has been someone placing a sticker on a camera,” she wrote in an email to Phoenix New Times.

Vandalizing a Phoenix speed camera can result in fines at the very least — if the vandal is ever identified and caught. When incidents like this do happen, Evans said, it’s Verra Mobility that is responsible for repairing them.

“The contractor, Verra Mobility, handles all maintenance of cameras and will continue to monitor vandalism and evaluate whether any adjustments can be made to prevent future occurrences,” Evans said.

If the cameras aren’t actually bolted to the ground — and it appears they aren’t — we might see more toppled cameras in the future.