Lawmaker wants cameras to enforce speeding laws
Seeking to address “an epidemic of traffic violence,” Assemblyman David Chiu is again introducing legislation that could pave the way for cameras with licenseplate readers to enforce speeding laws on California streets.
Assembly Bill 550, which Chiu introduced Tuesday, would require Caltrans to develop guidelines for a pilot program that would use “speed safety programs” — or radar systems triggered by speeding vehicles to photograph the car’s license plate — to reduce speedrelated injuries and deaths.
The new effort follows a failed attempt to get similar legislation passed in 2017. Chiu, DSan Francisco, said he’s trying again because “the need for speed safety systems has only grown as tragedies have continued.”
“I think that many more of my colleagues have attended too many memorials of our constituents,” Chiu told The Chronicle.
The use of technology like licenseplate readers and facial recognition has long been a contentious issue for advocates, who worry about the potential for increased surveillance and governmental encroachments on individual privacy. In 2019, San Francisco became the first major city in the United States to ban the use of facialrecognition technology. A 2020 audit found that California law enforcement agencies were not doing enough to protect the data they collect through licenseplate reading systems.
However, police reform advocates have intensified their calls since last summer for measures that would reduce the number of interactions between police and civilians for issues that can be handled in ways that don’t require armed officers — and Chiu said his bill could be a way to “protect public safety while responding to the needs
of our community.”
Chiu’s bill explicitly prohibits the use of facial recognition by jurisdictions that adopt the speed safety program, and requires the jurisdiction to adopt policies that set restrictions on the use of the speed data, and that protect and dispose of that data. The bill also requires the program to be operated by a municipality’s transportation agency — not its police department.
Any citations would be civil offenses and would not result in points on a person’s driver’s license. Penalties would be capped at $125, and jurisdictions must offer diversion programs
for lowincome drivers.
The bill would require Caltrans to adopt guidelines on the use of a speed safety program before July 1, 2022. Local transportation departments can adopt the program after 30 days of the guidelines being announced and would have to submit a report on the program within two years.
Chiu said the mayors of Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose are among the bill’s supporters.