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When Scott Rufolo received a citation after getting nabbed by a speed camera March 3, he paid the $40 fine right away because he knew he'd been doing 51 mph in a 30-mph zone. But when he received another citation for a violation Aug. 3, he was angry.

The citation listed him as going through the same Connecticut Avenue and East Melrose Street intersection in Chevy Chase on a day when he was home in Greenbrook, N.J.

"My only recourse is to go back to Maryland for a stupid $40 ticket," Rufolo said. "I called them up and said, ‘It's extortion.' What am I going to do?"

Turns out he did not have to return to Maryland.

Chevy Chase Village Police Chief Roy A. Gordon said a human error by an officer had transposed the "3/8" date to "8/3," causing the speed camera to save the images until Aug. 3 and send out a new batch of citations for the earlier offense.

Rufolo's August citation and 40 others were voided after the error was discovered, Gordon said. Nine motorists who paid their fines will receive refunds.

Critics say the error shows one of the problems with the speed camera enforcement program, but supporters say such errors are rare and the police receive few complaints.

Montgomery County launched the speed cameras in March 2007 as a pilot program. Earlier this year, the state approved speed cameras for statewide use.

A class-action lawsuit filed in December 2008 and pending in Montgomery County Circuit Court claims that the county went beyond what the state law allowed by outsourcing the speed ticket program to government contractor ACS, which collects $16.48 from every $40 citation issued.

"We're finding there's a whole series of errors in the setup and the procedures," said William F. Askinazi of Germantown, who is seeking refunds for all the citations issued in the county since the program began.

The class-action suit, which he expects will be certified by the end of this year, is not over errors but about the initial state law that allowed the county to set up the pilot program, he said.

"The legislature was careful to state no third party should benefit from giving out tickets," Askinazi said. But he has heard of numerous complaints about the citations, he said.

"You're outsourcing law enforcement to a private vendor," Askinazi said.

The cameras are operated in the county as well as Chevy Chase Village and the cities of Rockville and Gaithersburg.

Violators receive a $40 citation, but no points on their license.

The cameras that have resulted in the most citations are located on East West Highway in Silver Spring, Georgia Avenue in Olney and Randolph Road in Wheaton, said Montgomery County Police spokesman Lt. Paul Starks.

"We don't get many complaints," Starks said.

But complaints do surface.

Mel Banks of Silver Spring said he received three $40 tickets within one week after getting caught in Darnestown on Md. Route 28. He discovered one of the cameras was located a short distance from where the speed limit slows from 40 mph to 30 mph.

"I was aware of the lower speed limit and felt I had slowed appropriately," Banks said in an e-mail to The Gazette.

The setup seems like a speed trap, he said. "Unfair enforcement such as this only fuels public resistance to speed cameras," he said.

Gordon said police try to locate the cameras where they are needed to encourage drivers to slow down.

ACLU of Maryland spokeswoman Meredith Curtis said that speed cameras raise a number of issues.

"The larger concern is that people can be watched and tracked as these technologies are developed and linked together," she said.

"It's one part of a larger, big brother effort that can infringe on people's privacy. People don't like them."