Red-light camera ban moving in House, but stalls in Senate

TALLAHASSEE — Drivers who run red lights could get a free pass starting in July 2020 after the Florida House voted Thursday to ban red-light cameras statewide.

But the bill still must get through the Senate, where a similar proposal was rejected in a tie committee vote.

Florida’s red-light camera law has been controversial since its passage in 2010, and it is in legal jeopardy whatever the Legislature decides.

A 2014 state appeals court ruled the law unconstitutional, leading to dozens of municipalities around the state ending their programs. A separate appeals court ruling ruled in favor of the cameras, which could send the question to the Florida Supreme Court.

Support for getting rid of redlight cameras crossed party lines in the Florida House.

State Rep. Al Jacquet, D-Delray Beach, said the law “was intended to limit accidents and injuries. What we’ve seen is not only an increase in rear-ending accidents but a negative fiscal impact on our citizens in Florida. … It is a revenue-generating program, not a safety program.”

Those criticisms were echoed by the bill’s Republican sponsor, state Rep. Bryan Avila of Hialeah, who said the red-light camera law “has turned out to be more of a financial proposal for those local jurisdictions” that place cameras at high-traffic intersections.

He cited news reports on a redlight camera placed outside an emergency room entrance to a Tamarac hospital, where cars running the light in emergency situations were ticketed. Others disagreed. “It costs three quarters of a million dollars to have those intersections protected by officers,” said state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton. “It costs a hundred dollars to have those intersections protected better by cameras.”

Red-light cameras change drivers’ behavior, said state Rep. Joe Geller, D-Aventura: “Ask yourself what you do when you come up to a yellow light and there’s a red-light camera looking at you.”