Red Light Cameras: Republican/ACLU Bed-Fellows

Our local representatives say the idea of red light cameras at city intersections in Connecticut is a bad idea. So does the ACLU.

This proposal causes strange bed-fellows. It puts state Senator Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, in bed with both the American Civil Liberties Union and state Rep. Robert Godfrey, D-Danbury. This happens just as often as the Northern Lights appear over Miami.

"There are very rare occasions when I'm on the same side as the ACLU. It causes me to rethink what I'm doing to see where I might have gone wrong," said state Senator Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury.

"I'm on the same side of something with Mike McLachlan," said Godfrey. If you can ever hear someone shaking his head, it came through clearly over the telephone Thursday. "I'll have to do some thinking about this."

Gov. Dannel Malloy is proposing the red light cameras in his budget. The state legislature routinely rejects this idea that would allow cities to install a camera on traffic lights to snap a photograph of a car running a red light. The city would then mail the car owner a ticket for running the light.

The state Legislature will consider bills allowing cities to do this in Connecticut, as is done in many cities across the country.

McLachlan said the red light cameras lead to the car owner getting a ticket for running a red light, not the driver. The ticket isn't mailed to the driver, but to the car owner. That is almost exactly what Godfrey said.

"I have a problem with that," McLachlan said. So does Andrew Schneider, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Connecticut, who opposed the idea in testimony in February 2011, and again this month. Schneider objects for several reasons.

"Presently, when someone receives a traffic violation, the officer who provides the ticket makes the motorist immediately aware of the violation. With red light cameras, however, it may be days or weeks before a person is given notification of a citation. The longer time duration makes it more difficult to recall details and adversely affects the driver’s ability to challenge the ticket. How many of us would have difficulty remembering information about driving through intersections just yesterday?" asked Schneider in his 2011 Hartford testimony.

This month, Schneider said in a release after the traffic camera debate was renewed in New Haven, "Renewed efforts to legalize the use of traffic light cameras in Connecticut, announced today in New Haven, raise the same troubling questions about due process, fairness and privacy that previous, unsuccessful campaigns failed to answer. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut will continue to oppose any measure to permit them in the state.

 "Traffic light cameras severely compromise the constitutional right of due process. The owner of a vehicle is ticketed because the camera photographs the license plate but can’t identify the actual driver.  And the driver never has a chance to confront an accuser.

 “The presumption that the owner of the car and the driver are one and the same is often wrong, yet the owner is always ticketed,” said Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut. “Also, when a police officer pulls someone over, the driver has a chance to explain any extenuating circumstance and the officer may recognize that, for instance, the driver was moving out of the way of an emergency vehicle.”

State Rep. Janice Giegler, R-Danbury, agreed with both Schneider of the ACLU and McLachlan, and Godfrey.

"I voted against the measure when it came before the Judiciary Committee and the Transportation Committee in recent years, and plan to again oppose it in the upcoming legislative session,” said Janice Giegler, R-138. "Red light cameras are neither a good use of taxpayer money, nor are they sound public policy due to their intrusive nature. Privacy is an issue we see coming to light more and more, and I believe Connecticut residents do not need or want big brother in their backyards."

Godfrey said cities typically support the bill, because they want the money. It is a cash cow, but it isn't making intersections safer, Godfrey said. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said he also questions the use of the cameras, but isn't certain.

"I don't think we should have cameras all over the city looking at people," Boughton said. "I really have a big brother question here. I'd need to study it."

Danbury uses its traffic cameras today to watch key intersections to regulate traffic lights to ease traffic congestion and stoppages across the city. The cameras are not the kind that can take photographs of cars as they run red lights.