ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – Residents of St. Charles County are watching from a distance as St. Louis City tries to reinstate the contentious red light cameras that the courts had previously struck down.
The head of the St. Charles County government called the cameras a money-making deal that had to go.
St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Megan Green and Mayor Tishaura Jones support red light camera legislation.
“Well, we do know that automated traffic enforcement does decrease traffic violence,” Green said. “There’s good data behind that, so I do think it’s paramount to get that program in place. It’s incredibly important that we are doing the oversight beside that to make sure residents know what technology is being used and to prevent surveillance abuse.”
But St Charles County residents need not worry about their officials trying to do the same. St Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann led the charge among officials to do away with red light cameras in the county. They put a measure on the ballot. Seventy-two percent of the residents voted to get rid of it.
“In 90-plus percent of the cases, they’re just used as a way for local jurisdictions to make some money,” he said. “It’s a lot cheaper to buy a camera than to pay a police officer and training him and put him out there on the street. That’s been the problem with red light cameras.”
A number of cities in St. Charles County had red-light cameras and wanted to keep them. They accused the county government of overstepping its boundaries and went to court to try to challenge them. But the courts sided with the citizens.
In 2017, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld citizens’ right to overturn red light cameras.
Before that, the state supreme court in 2015 called the city’s red light camera ordinance unconstitutional.
“Well, as I said, we have designed a program that does pass constitutional muster and so, even if we are sued on it again, we are confident that it will withstand a court challenge,” Green said.
