Do we really need to trick drivers into breaking the law just to raise revenue?
As I drive through Downtown Raleigh every morning on the way to court, I go through an intersection with a red light camera. While the city has not fallen into the trap of shortening the yellow light, what I have noticed that they have done is shorten the length of the green light so that the light at that intersection is not synchronized with the other lights. As I go how the street at the speed limit, I will hit each intersection with the same amount of time on the crosswalk sign at each intersection until I hit the intersection with the camera. I always get caught at that one. I believe a lot of people end up running that one because the expect it to be green like the rest of them. Not so.
Below is a great article about how the people in one town fought back and won when their town started using red light cameras to raise revenue.
A small Ohio town that lived by the red light camera could soon die by it, after a federal court ruled the speed trap has to pay back more than $3 million in automated speeding tickets.
The case of New Miami, population 2,321, highlights the controversy behind the tickets, which make stoplight-running motorists see red, but help keep the budgets of cities and towns in the black. New Miami will almost certainly go bankrupt if the Supreme Court doesn’t reverse a lower court’s ruling and spare it from refunding tens of thousands of tickets at $180 apiece plus interest.
“The village enacted this unconstitutional scheme primarily as a money making venture,” Josh Engel, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the New Miami case, told Fox News. “They increased their spending significantly after the scheme was put in place and it was basically used to fill holes in their budget that would traditionally have come from raising taxes.”
The case of New Miami is seen by many drivers across the country – including numerous lawmakers and lawyers – as the epitome of municipalities abusing their power by setting up speed traps and red light cameras in an attempt, not to make roadways safer, but to line their coffers.
“As with most issues there are elements of truth on both sides,” Bill Seitz, a Republican state representative from Ohio, told Fox News. “But many of these jurisdictions are using these tickets as revenue enhancements that ticket people for only minor infractions.”
Seitz is currently working to push a bill through the Ohio statehouse that would require cities to file all traffic camera cases in municipal court and would reduce state funding to cities by the same amount cities collect in traffic camera revenue.
The Ohio representative, who himself was caught on camera rolling through a red light in Columbus, added that in 2006 and 2014 lawmakers approved restrictions on photo enforcement cameras and that limits or bands on the devices enjoy wide support in cities like Cincinnati and Cleveland.
The current animosity directed at the cameras marks a shift in public sentiment toward the cameras.
While it is tough to pinpoint the national pulse as most studies are conducted at a state and regional level, but it appears that there are a growing number of areas who are starting to question whether the speed camera programs are effective or even constitutional.
Seven states are currently considering legislation to prohibit red light and speed camera use amid concerns that they are ripe for abuse and IIHS study found that the number of red-light cameras in the U.S. dropped to 467 in 2015 from its peak of 553 in 2012.
“It’s really a money-making venture,” Israel Klein, a lawyer in New York City, told Fox News. “They’re raking in the dollars and it’s an extreme abuse of power.”
Klein earlier this year filed a class-action lawsuit against the city that argues that speed camera tickets are invalid and violate New York state law as the city failed to file all of the required paperwork with the court before allowing a private contractor to drop the photo ticket in the mail. New York City’s 2018 budget expects to haul in $119 million in photo enforcement fines.
“City officials don’t care about the law as long as they’re making money,” Klein added.
Proponents of the cameras, however, argue that they significantly lower the number of accidents on the road as both speeding and going through red lights are two of the biggest causes of car crashes in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Seven states are currently considering legislation to prohibit red light and speed camera use amid concerns that they are ripe for abuse and IIHS study found that the number of red-light cameras in the U.S. dropped to 467 in 2015 from its peak of 553 in 2012.
“It’s really a money-making venture,” Israel Klein, a lawyer in New York City, told Fox News. “They’re raking in dollars and it’s an extreme abuse of power.”
Klein earlier this year filed a class-action lawsuit against the city that argues that speed camera tickets are invalid and violate New York state law as the city failed to file all of the required paperwork with the court before allowing a private contractor to drop the photo ticket in the mail. New York City’s 2018 budget expects to haul in $119 million in photo enforcement fines.
“City officials don’t care about the law as long as they’re making money,” Klein added.
Proponents of the cameras, however, argue that they significantly lower the number of accidents on the road as both speeding and going through red lights are two of the biggest causes of car crashes in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
By Andrew O'Reilly | Fox News