ST. LOUIS – An aldermen committee hearing on Wednesday included comments from supporters and opponents of using automated cameras as a tool for traffic enforcement in the City of St. Louis.
Alderman Shane Cohn (Ward 3) is the sponsor of a bill that would allow the city to use cameras to issue citations for speeding and running red lights.
Cohn has been working on crafting a bill that would withstand legal challenges that previously led to the end of red-light camera enforcement in St. Louis. He said dangerous driving surged after the program ended.
“Studies that have been done across the county with cities that have these in place have seen reductions in violations since they’ve been installed,” he said.
This time around, money collected from offenders would fund a neighborhood safety traffic improvement fund.
“That revenue would go back into either diversion programs, education programs or infrastructure enhancements in our neighborhood streets to curtail these types of things from happening in the future,” Cohn said.
He plans on introducing a substitute bill to address some concerns raised by community members. Some critics of the cameras shared those concerns during the public comment period of Wednesday’s committee meeting.
“We have to stop doing this thing where we try to criminalize everything for the solution to our problems,” Inez Bordeaux, St. Louis resident and Ward 3 committeewoman, said.
She believes focusing more on educating drivers would be more effective.
There were also concerns raised over privacy, more specifically who would have access to the images captured by the cameras.
Cohn hopes to have a substitute bill ready by the end of March. He agrees with some critics who would like to see more education and infrastructure improvements but said there’s not enough funding available to make a citywide impact the way he believes cameras would.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Tracy also addressed the committee. He said automated camera enforcement has been an effective tool in other cities.
“I support the implementation of automated traffic enforcement and I believe the time to act is now,” Tracy told the committee.
