The speed camera that police say was destroyed by an angry Phoenix motorist.

Provided by Phoenix Police Department

Audio By Carbonatix

Hometown hero or criminal vandal? 

The Phoenix Police Department arrested a man for allegedly doing what we all secretly want to do: beat the crap out of one of those pesky speed cameras. 

Police arrested Brandon Ribadeneira, 20, for allegedly causing an estimated $47,045.92 worth of damage to one of the city’s speed enforcement cameras after he triggered it by speeding. He allegedly attacked the tattletale machine on Aug. 18. Police arrested him yesterday and charged him with criminal damage, a class 4 felony. 

Ribadeneira or his lawyer could not be reached for comment for this story.

Phoenix reinstated its speed camera program earlier this year and began issuing tickets in March. There are 17 cameras placed strategically throughout the city. The cameras are triggered by drivers going 11 miles per hour over the speed limit or higher. 

He is not the first Phoenician to battle the R2D2-esque street monitors, which have issued over 65,000 tickets so far. Other cameras have been damaged or vandalized since the cameras went live — one was pushed over, one was decorated with a sticker and another was hit by gunfire. 

Ribadeneira was caught by his alleged victim — the camera itself. Footage from the speed camera showed Ribadeneira driving his Blue 2019 Toyota Corolla hatchback above the speed limit past a speed camera posted in a school zone at 22800 N. 22nd Street, according to the court document. Police identified him by his license plate number — the car was registered to his father — and by matching his face in the footage to his DMV photo. 

The footage captured the alleged speed demon pulling over after triggering the camera, according to the court document. He walked to the camera and kicked it multiple times before pushing it over. 

“Brandon is captured rolling the camera after it fell, striking it repeatedly,” the court document reads. 

Ribadeneira left the scene in the blue Corolla. At 10:15 a.m. a witness saw him return in a Gray Chevrolet Silverado. He then allegedly attached the camera to the truck with a strap and dragged it down the street for about a third of a mile. He abandoned the damaged camera at 19th Way and E. Cashman Dr., according to officials. 

Police found the victim in its resting spot at 10:28 a.m. It is unclear what was the ultimate fate of the speed camera.

Ribadeneira was wearing a long sleeve grey shirt with blue lettering that said “RZR” in the footage, according to the court document. When officers executed a search warrant on Aug. 25 at Ribadeneira’s home they found a shirt that matched the one from the footage. 

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Clarissa Sosin joined Phoenix New Times as a staff writer in March 2026. Previously she covered criminal justice and politics in New York and Louisiana. She has a master’s in International Reporting from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and has reported in five countries outside of the United States. She got her start in journalism through photography and documentary film and taught investigative and multimedia journalism at the City University of New York.