James Call
Efforts to put the brakes on the use of red-light cameras by municipalities stalled in the Florida Senate on Tuesday, but is continuing to cruise in the House.
Sen. Jeff Brandes and Rep. Brian Avila say the money the cameras raise in fines should be used for public safety programs. An OPPAGA report found that most of the revenue generated by the fines, $119 million in 2013, goes into local governments’ general revenue fund.
“If public safety is the purpose then we should be backing it up with the funds,” Rep. Frank Artiles said in support of Avila’s bill when it came up in the House Economic Affairs Committee.
The measure would withhold red-light-camera fines from local governments until they comply with the mandate. It would also require local governments to consider safety alternatives to cameras, allow the Department of Transportation to inspect red light cameras, and to compile reports on their use.
The committee approved the bill so now it heads to the House floor.
Florida is not the only state seeing red when it comes to cameras policing intersections. In December, New Jersey ended a five-year pilot program allowing 25 municipalities to use cameras and Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a law virtually blocking all RLC use.
Critics of red-light cameras argue they have failed to cut down on the number of accidents and have become another revenue source for government. An OPPAGA report found that after the Legislature had authorized their use statewide, revenue collected from RLC fines increased by 200 percent. The report also found rear-end and T-bone crashes jumped 11 percent after the cameras went up, but the number of crash-related deaths went down.
“I think Floridians are beginning to understand that red-light cameras are less and less about safety and more and more about revenue,” Brandes said.
Tuesday, Brandes tried to amend a bill in a Senate TED meeting to mirror Avila’s proposal. It failed after committee members expressed reservations about attaching it to bill focusing on ports.
He then tried to amend a second bill, but that move also failed.
Brandes is not ready to put the brakes on the effort to rein in the use of the cameras.
“The data that we do have says that accidents are going up at intersections with red-light cameras,” Brandes said. “Red-light cameras were put in to reduce accidents but we’re generating revenue and increasing accidents. How can we call this program a success?”
Brandes said he will try again in Senate Appropriations and that Avila’s bill remains a viable vehicle to restrict RLC use.
The Legislature authorized cameras to be used to police intersections in 2010 and since then about 70 municipalities have set up cameras.
