Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Editorial: Give the green light to a photo-red law
Virginia's delegates should set fear aside and pass a reasonable law to stop traffic on 'red.'
From the RoundTable blog
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Again, Virginia's Senate has voted for public safety by voting to let localities set up photo monitors at traffic light signals.
Drivers who run red lights willingly risk innocent lives, knowing they face little chance of being caught by police too undermanned to stake out dangerous intersections with any frequency. That equation needs to change.
It will only if the House of Delegates passes one of the Senate's so-called photo-red bills, legislation that delegates defeated in past General Assembly sessions for specious reasons.
Opponents balk at the presumption of guilt and government intrusiveness of electronic monitoring. Like parking scofflaws, though, violators merely would be fined, in this case no more than $50, and would not be deemed convicted of an operating violation that would show up on their driving records.
Those cited who were not driving at the time of the offense could easily rebut the charge by saying so in a mailed affidavit or sworn testimony in court.
Further, even the most ardent privacy-rights advocates should not expect to pull that cloak around them while operating motor vehicles on public roads. Electronic monitoring at toll booths has been going on with nary a ripple of public discomfort over the loss of a nonexistent expectation of privacy.
Violators get caught and fined, and that makes the system work for everybody.
So much for fears of eroding constitutional rights.
One valid criticism of photo-red cameras is that localities and the companies they hire can rig the system to maximize violations and, thus, fines. Two Senate-passed bills address that fear by barring localities from paying a private entity based on the number of violations produced. Plus, only local police could impose penalties after looking at the recorded images.
One of the Senate-passed bills this session would apply statewide, the other to just a handful of localities. Every locality should have this tool.
The value of photo-red cameras is not in raising revenue, but in serving as a deterrent. Fear of that "click" stops motorists and saves lives.
