Do C.R.’ cameras target out-of-state drivers?

I am a fan of your fine city and the highway drive I take several times a year that brings me through Cedar Rapids.

I often buy gas, snacks and meals there. I stay overnight in Cedar Rapids almost every time I pass through when I travel that direction. I love driving “The Avenue of the Saints” to St. Louis or Peoria, Ill., and points south.

I will no longer take that route. I have been “nabbed” twice coming through Cedar Rapids by the city “robo camera cops.” I have had repairs done, my oil changed and cars washed there. I travel at the same speeds that all the other traffic flowing through on the highway there.

I am not arguing that I was speeding and I have paid the fines. I find this form of law enforcement to be at best un-American in principle and in a small way as spooky as the George Orwell book “1984,” let alone the constitutional implications. It also would be interesting to know if out-of-state drivers are targeted when the cameras are capturing “all” license plates, since they don't vote there and will not have that recourse.

I can and have now chosen to avoid your city on all business and family driving trips because of this. I estimate I spend conservatively $300 to $400 there annually that I will no longer be spending. I have other, similar distance, alternative routes which I am now using to avoid Iowa and Cedar Rapids in particular.

You have a beautiful city that I will miss.

Robert Briscoe

Harris, Minn.