The first set of hearings for drivers wanting to contest their red light camera violations will occur this morning at City Hall beginning at 9:00 AM. A lot of dialog is underway in the midst of these hearings as debate focuses on the number of violations being issued for failing to stop on red when making a right turn. There are a few key points to remember here.
In checking with our Traffic officers who reviewed these cases, the violations were incidents where the driver did not appreciably slow down before making the right turn. What do we mean by that?
The Traffic officers noted that drivers who slow down to such a speed that is almost but not quite a stop benefited from officer discretion and did not get a violation notice. It was those drivers who barely slowed down who ended up receiving a notice. While both examples are technically violations, common sense and reasonable judgment as to what constitutes good or improper driving behavior is in order here.
One reviewing officer told me the cases that are borderline get the benefit of the doubt while those who received a violation notice would have received a traffic citation if officers had been at the intersection. The bad driving and decision to run the red light, albeit during a right turn on red, were that blatant.
So what happens if the hearing officer decides in favor of the drivers today and dismisses the right turn on red violations?
Well, it won't be the first time we lost a case in some type of court proceeding and it certainly won't be the last. The difference here, though, is graphic video evidence of a violation occurring rather than only having officer testimony. We stand by the evidence showing drivers failing to stop before turning right on red and the reasonable decisions by our Traffic officers to issue notices of violation for these incidents caught on camera.
We also understand the concept of due process and a driver's right to contest the charges. It's the system that works in our nation everyday.
- Asst Chief Bill LePere
This ordinance is indeed a violation of State law that requires ALL traffic laws to be uniform, and equal across the state. This ordinance seeks to undermine several key principles of law, and also rephrases the issue of due process. Judicial fairness is key to a successful nation, and to temporarily suspend Florida's evidentiary code, is blatently illegal. In this country, we have equal protection under our Constitution, and as such, the right to be innocent until proven guilty is stepped on by these citations, because the ordinance has no provisions for mitigating circumstances, thus the room for mistakes gets much wider. Let's say the city issued a citation to the owner of the vehicle for a red light infraction, if that owner of the vehicle doesn't pay, it is possible the city could place a lien on you car, that is borderline extortion. There are reasons why the State of Florida Department of Transportation has issued warnings to several counties that have enforced red light camera infractions, one good reason is that they are breaking state law. It is disturbing to me how a city can simply disregard the laws of the state by infringing on their own citizen's basic constitutional rights, and not to mention the laundry list of other laws this ordinance tramples over. When you violate state laws, you set the stage for a lawsuit, specifically a class action lawsuit. In many similar actions done by cities across the nation have been struck down by similar lawsuits in the past. Another thing that gets to me is the fact that the city would rather lay off hardworking employees, and instead, spend the money on things that the state had already declared illegal in the first place. This is an example of why we need reform of our government, and why some officials just have to go. Thank you.
Posted by: cmichael | August 07, 2009 at 04:20 PM