High Springs has taken a pass on red light cameras for now.
Since cities across the country are being slammed with civil lawsuits challenging the
cameras, City Commissioners chose to wait and see how the Florida Legislature rules on three related bills this spring before bringing cameras to High Springs.
“I still think it’s really something we probably need to do, but I would like to see us wait,” Commissioner Larry Travis said. “If the state passes it, it puts more teeth in the whole operation. Gainesville is doing the same thing. They’re waiting.”
Despite encouragement from Police Chief James Troiano, Commissioners said at a workshop March 18 there were too many risks to merit the installation. An ordinance to allow the cameras in the city was approved last year, but a vote would still be needed now to assign a private company to install the cameras.
“I voted for it the first time, that’s true, but I frankly didn’t think we’d have enough violations to warrant the installation,” Mayor William Coughlin said.
But Troiano said he sees a need for the cameras at the city’s two intersections of U.S. 441 and North Main Street and NW First Avenue and North Main Street.
A survey conducted earlier this month counted 24 runs through red lights and 473 right-on-red violations at the two intersections in an eight-hour period. Though Troiano does not have a count of past fatalities from the city’s intersections, he said the cameras are effective in discouraging drivers from running red lights and reducing the risk for collisions.
“The point is that people violate the red lights, and what we’re hoping to do is prevent a fatality,” Troiano said Wednesday. “That’s our whole emphasis here.”
Current law prevents the state from using cameras to issue traffic citations to red-light runners without an officer witnessing the offense. But cities across the country are getting around that by installing red light cameras through private companies and issuing city fines, without points, instead.
Cities partner with private companies that set up camera equipment at intersections free of charge but keep a portion of each fine collected. When a driver runs a red light, the camera snaps a photo of the tag, and a fine is mailed to the owner of the vehicle.
While Gainesville also has an ordinance on the books permitting the cameras, no city in Alachua County has gone through with the installation.
And officials in High Springs see several flaws with the logic of the cameras. For one, the penalty for running the red light would be a city fine, much like a parking ticket for parking illegally downtown.
If the violator isn’t a High Springs resident, there would be little way of enforcing they pay up, Vice Mayor Eric May said.
“This is really only enforceable on the residents,” he said. “People will know if you don’t live in the city limits you can run that light.”
Commissioners also said without an officer to pull over the driver of the vehicle, there is no way of knowing who is actually driving the car. Car owners, not necessarily the drivers, would get fines in the mail even if they had lent the cars to somebody else.
The revenue that would be generated by the fines is also a point of debate. Troiano said the city’s current ordinance allows for fines of $100 per offense. American Traffic Solutions, a company nominated by Troiano, is proposing a tier system that would take a share of violations each day, leaving any remaining fines all for the city. According to his calculations, that could bring as much as $150,000 to the city in fines in a year.
If State Legislatures pass the bills legalizing cameras, red light violations would be punished with $155 traffic citations carrying points and insurance penalties. The cost of the fine would be split between the state and the city operating the cameras.
“Is it really about safety, or is it about money?” Commissioner Dean Davis asked.
But for most cities, it’s a question of legality as hundreds of civil suits have been launched in retaliation of the cameras. Critics argue the cameras violate a driver’s due process rights because they don’t allow violators to face their accusers and drivers are presumed guilty and must prove their innocence.
In February, a Miami-Dade judge ruled that Aventura violated state law with its red light cameras. This month the Missouri Supreme Court ordered the City of Springfield to ignore all unpaid tickets just before a lawsuit demanding refunds for past tickets was launched.
But Troiano assured commissioners High Springs would not see such lawsuits since the cameras would only assist police officers in their patrolling, not replace them.
According to Troiano, each offense would be reviewed by a police officer, since the cameras take rolling footage of each intersection. It would be up to the officer to determine if the vehicle had violated the red light or not. A photo is then mailed to the driver along with their fine, which could be appealed to the city’s Code Enforcement Board.
Commissioners said they will return to the issue once the state delivers a decision on the pending bills. Until then, only the vigilance of an officer can accuse a violator rushing through the city’s red lights.
“I just want the focus to be on safety,” Troiano said. “This is not about making money.”