Red-light camera tickets ruled legal

Court’s decision comes weeks after Boynton votes to end program.

BOYNTON BEACH — B oy n t o n Beach’s attorneys have maintained for about two years that the city’s red-light camera program doesn’t violate state law.

They claim the program is different from Hollywood’s, which was deemed unconstitutional because of its reliance on the camera vendor, sending surrounding municipalities — except Boynton — to quickly shut off the cameras.

On Friday an appellate panel of Palm Beach County’s circuit judges agreed with Boynton’s attorneys and reversed a judge’s 2015 dismissal of a local man’s red-light camera citation.

The ruling comes just weeks after the majority of city commissioners voted to end the program starting in 2017. Commissioner Joe Casello, who voted to turn the cameras off, said the decision won’t change his mind. He said he still believes the cameras have failed to change driver behavior.

City Attorney Mike Cirullo called it a win for Boynton.

“It’s an important ruling to verify that what we’ve been doing with the red-light camera program has been legal,” he said.

But he agrees with the alleged violator’s attorney, Ted Hollander, that the debate over the cameras is far from over. Hollander said it’s headed to the Florida Supreme Court.