Red Light Camera

Automated traffic enforcement cameras are falling out of favor across America. A Long Island anti-camera group was the latest to protest Sunday.

After two decades of continuous growth, the number of red-light camera programs is declining in the United States. The number peaked at 540 two years ago, according to records kept by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Today, there are 502 programs, a decrease of about seven percent.

A former chief executive officer of one of the world's largest makers of red-light traffic cameras was indicted on federal corruption charges Wednesday, along with two city officials in Chicago.

New Jersey may soon prohibit other states from issuing traffic citations to its residents for alleged violations that were caught on speed or red-light cameras.

Red light cameras have become a popular traffic control tool across the country in the last few years, and as their use has grown so has pushback from motorists. A woman in San Francisco recently fought and had her red light ticket thrown out on a technicality.

Daphne Campbell, a Democratic state representative in Florida, said she had the best interests of her constituents in mind when she sponsored a bill that would outlaw red-light cameras in Florida. "My constituents complained and the people are hurting," she tells the Miami Herald.

It's looking like Christmas in Summer for Washington D.C. and Baltimore area motorists. Police are voiding millions of dollars in tickets issued from speeding cameras that weren't properly programmed.

Regardless of who you voted for, November 2nd represented a major win for everyone who opposes the use of red light cameras. In a handful of pockets across the nation, voters decided they were sick of the automated machines and by voting against the use of these devices, sent a message to law enforcement, as well as the companies that manufacture red light cameras.

Speed cameras are at best a dubious safety enhancement sold on the premise of slowing traffic, while the more important proposition is often the promise of the revenue they can generate. Arizona residents have mostly cut through the bovine feculence around the state's big camera deployment program, one that's been described as groundbreaking. The state installed 76 one-eyed bandits, but profits are lower than projected, and some citizens want the cameras gone.

A Minneapolis, Minnesota area judge has given red-light cameras a taste of their own medicine. Hennepin County District Judge Mark Wernick has put the red light on the county's automated traffic signal cameras installed this past July.