EDIT: since apparently a bunch of people woke up with the wrong foot this morning or forgot to check the group they’re in:
This is a joke. Do not steal or vandalize speed enforcement cameras (or anything else for that matter). That’s against the law and you will likely get arrested.
If you’re addicted to crack or any other drugs, please seek professional help.
They take your picture and then you get a mostly automated letter with the picture saying you have to pay a fine, but mostly you can ignore them. I lived near an intersection with one, every time the left turn light turned red (which happened way faster than normal) the picture flash went off for the last three or so people going through the intersection, presumably all of them getting tickets. I assume they are also recording the license plate numbers of everyone going through the intersection regardless of perceived violations.
Why do you think those letters in the mail can be ignored? They are tied to your license plate and that is serious business. If you don’t pay traffic fines, the fines go up and up and Then they involve the criminal justice system and you have to show up in court and it’s all just very ugly. Oh yeah they can suspend your driver’s license over it too, There’s no way to get out of paying traffic citations.
I know in Arizona, but possibly other states too, you have to be served for the violation. So people just ignore them without consequences until they get caught for something else more serious.
It will depend on where you are. My area has a law that almost word for word says, “This law cannot be used to deny X,” where X is renewal of a driver’s license, withholding of any services, etc. It also can’t be sent to collections or be a mandatory fine from the state. The company is basically fucked.
I forget the exact reason, I researched it at the time and don’t remember well now, but the other comments are probably right. Anyway I know they can be ignored because I ignored them and nothing ever happened. Was more than a decade ago so I think I’m good. They were clearly sending them out to a large portion of everyone going through the intersection for no good reason, it was basically just a grift, so it would have been ridiculous to actually enforce all of them with police and courts.