Would you use any product designed to "fool" unmanned traffic cameras?
Choice	Votes	Percentage of 17 Votes
Yes	15	88%
No	2	12%

WTOV9.com

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT: Beating The Speed Trap

POSTED: 4:16 pm EST February 6, 2006

STEUBENVILLE, OH -- Steubenville's traffic cameras have been so controversial, a pending lawsuit has temporarily shut them down.

But if they come back, would you try to beat the system? And do products designed to do that really work?

Beating traffic cameras has become big business and one of the hottest countermeasures is a spray called "PhotoBlocker."

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It's supposed to put a high-gloss finish on your license plate, overexposing it when the flash goes off.

If police can't read your plate, they can't send you a ticket.

Former Ohio state Rep. Jerry Krupinski tried to outlaw traffic cameras in his final term in office.

Now he's selling PhotoBlocker at a local flea market.

"I've sold lots of cans of this stuff and i've not had one person come back to me and say, Jerry, I got a ticket, so it doesn't work," said Krupinski. "But with all the testimonials the company put out, I have no doubt that it does work."

Because of the lawsuit, Steubenville police can't even talk about the cameras, let alone let us test out the spray.

So we set up our own test.

Following the instructions on the can, we washed an old West Virginia license plate up and sprayed it down with four coats of Photoblocker.

For comparison purposes we also had an untreated West Virginia plate handy.

When we attached the untreated plate to a NEWS 9 vehicle and used a digital camera with a flash to photograph it, the plate was still legible.

When we did the same thing with a plate treated with Photoblocker, the plate showed up glowing white in the digital image and was unreadable for our camera.

Before you buy this product, which costs around $30.00 per can, there's one more thing you should know.

The surest way to beat the speed trap, it seems, is to just slow down.

The other question is is it legal?

Certain license plate frames are illegal in Ohio, because they obscure the numbers on your plate, but because photoblocker is clear nobody would even know you're using it.

There's no law saying your plate has to be "photogenic."

To learn more, visit http://www.phantomplate.com/photoblocker.html.

To purchase PhotoBlocker from Krupinski, visit the Treasure Island Flea Market in Wintersville or look up his web site www.sprayorpay.com.

Eric Minor, NEWS 9

 

 

Joe Scott

Marketing Director

www.PhantomPlate.com

703 624 9318