Destories
PHOENIX — Speed-enforcement vans are back on Arizona highways for the first time following the killing of a van operator last month.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Jim Warriner said Tuesday that the vans began being phased back onto roadways Monday.
He said he does not know how many vans are out snapping the photos of speeders or when all of them will be up and running again.
Warriner declined to say whether people were inside the vans, citing safety issues. He said only that “the technology is out there that has allowed us to move forward.”
“We’re comfortable that the van operators and the vans will be protected,” he said.
Thomas Patrick Destories, 68, is charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Doug Georgianni, 51, who was operating a speed-enforcement van on a Phoenix freeway when he was killed.
Authorities haven’t said what they believe the motive might be, but said the two men had never met.
The speed vans were pulled from Arizona freeways the day after the killing; fixed cameras never stopped operating.
Warriner said late last month that DPS was working with camera operator RedFlex Traffic Systems Inc. to decide how the vans would operate in the future, and that they could be unmanned.
The photo-enforcement program was launched under former Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano. Civil violations are punishable by a fine and surcharges totaling $181.
Georgianni is survived by his wife Jean, his parents, and six brothers and sisters.