With All Of The Controversy, Should Red Light Cameras Even Be Legal?

Red-light cameras threaten the public interest in critical ways and should be outlawed across the country.

Fifteen states already have banned automated traffic enforcement, mostly on constitutional grounds. Several key tenets of a citizen’s due process rights are violated by red-light camera ticketing. Among them:

• There is no certifiable witness to the alleged violation. The defendant loses the right to cross examine his accuser in court.
• The driver is not positively identified by the camera, so the default is to charge the vehicle’s registered owner with the violation. The owner, who may not have been the driver, is presumed guilty. A bedrock principle of our justice system – a defendant is innocent until proven guilty – is unceremoniously jettisoned.
• The chain of custody of photo evidence is murky at best, shifting electronically between the camera vendor and the local police department before a ticket is issued. Yet rarely is a representative of the red-light camera company made available to testify in court as to the gathering, handling, or interpretation of the evidence.

LexSucks - 5/22/2012 6:48:10 PM

-1 Boost

Yes. They should be legal. The 1% needs our money.

atc98092 - 5/22/2012 8:51:40 PM

+1 Boost

In my town they do what the are supposed to. School zones people slow down, and read light running accidents are way down. City "revenue" has dropped to the point that they no longer collect anything, as fines have dropped below the minimum that has to be paid to the support company. But then by town didn't alter the yellow light timing. I fully support my particular town.

That said, any town that has been shown to manipulate their light timing specificly to increase revenue (as a nearby town has) I fully concur they should have their plug pulled.

atc98092 - 5/22/2012 8:52:32 PM

+2 Boost

Ah crap, another edit needed. "...and red light running accidents..."