‘I’m torn’: Community weighs pros and cons of red-light cameras possible return
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Red-light cameras could be making a comeback. This comes nearly nine years after a Missouri supreme court decision banned them, claiming they were unconstitutional.
The cameras take pictures of the driver and license plate if the driver fails to stop at a red light. That person is then ticketed.
On Thursday, the city council ed the ordinance in a 10-to-1 vote.
Mayor Quinton Lucas told KCTV5 that this is an additional tool for enforcing traffic penalties when police are unavailable.
“While we continue to work up our staffing at KD, I think it is vital for us to come up with every tool possible,” Lucas said. “We have an increase of fatalities on our roads; a lot of factors behind it is there are a lot of people speeding right now.”
A big part of bringing them back is that technology has enhanced greatly since they were last installed over a decade ago.
“This will be the sort of thing where it’s more about the identity of the individual who is driving, rather than actually looking at the license plate itself, and that’s something that’s going to be a key change from what perhaps existed previously,” Lucas said. “If you have a camera that’s just pointing at a license plate and says alright, you’re going to get a ticket, a speeding ticket potentially, even though you’re not the one who is driving, courts had a concern with that, I think all of us had a concern with that.”
With locations not locked in stone yet, the cameras will be placed based on crash reports and the new technology will be able to identify the driver more accurately.
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“We will look at where there have been high crash incidents, where we have had a number of concerns over the years, and see where I think we could deploy most effectively,” Lucas said.
Some residents are excited, and others see both pros and cons, like Warren Crouse, who lives off 75th, and Ward Parkway, an area where Lucas said these cameras could go.
“I’m torn,” Crouse said. “I do know that it does change your behavior because if you’re coming up and it’s a red-light camera, you go like, ‘Oh, and make sure you stop.’”
Crouse said drivers fly down his street daily, some reaching 80 mph.
“There’s a lot of accidents in the neighborhood, and people have died, so I can see that there’s value in them. But at the same time, I’m concerned, what if I’m most of the way through when it turns red, and I get a ticket. If we’re doing it for speed, same thing, what if you speed up a little bit to get through, and they get you for that.”
Some question if this is just another way for the city to make money.
“This is not the sort of thing where Kansas City can say, we need $100 million more this year so we’re just going to just put cameras at every intersection,” Lucas said. “Instead, there is a limit. This is, to me, something just like how we deploy our officers when we have our officers, and right now, we are down 300 officers.”
The ordinance still needs to be ed by the board of police. If it is, Lucas predicts the cameras to go up within the next few months.
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