As of December, 49 local governments in Florida had red-light cameras in operation, according to the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
red-light cameras
Lawmakers Again Trying to Ban
Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Challenge to Red-Light Camera Enforcement
Justices said a local government could use a private contractor to review images — so long as a city officer makes the ultimate decision on whether to issue a ticket.
Supreme Court Hears Latest Red Light Camera Case, But Justices Skeptical of Illegality
Several justices appeared skeptical as that the way a Florida city handles citations issued to motorists caught on camera is unlawful.
Palm Coast’s Long Nightmare With Red-Light Cameras Set to End Friday, 6 Months Early
The plan, termed a “wind down agreement,” would end the operation of the cameras by March 31 “by mutual agreement.” But Palm Coast would have to pay ATS $16,000 to remove equipment.
House Panel Votes 13-1 to Ban Red-Light Cameras by 2020, But We’ve Been Here Before
State data showing increased crashes at red-light camera intersections adds momentum to the Florida’s latest effort to ban the cameras, but similar attempts have failed in the Senate before.
Crashes at Red-Light Camera Intersections Up 10%, Incapacitating Injuries Up 27%
A new report by the Florida highway safety department shows crash increases that belie claims that red-light cameras have made intersections safer. Palm Coast’s cameras are set to come down this year.
Federal Appeals Court Rules Against ATS, Palm Coast and Cities in Red-Light Camera Case
The decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is a reminder that Palm Coast is still not clear of the legal shambles that have surrounded the cameras. That class-action suit can now go forward, with drivers claiming they’d been wrongly fined.
Appeals Court Upholds Red-Light Cameras But Urges Florida Supreme Court to Rule Decisively
A court upheld Aventura’s program, which relies on police, not the private contractor, to make decisions about ticketing motorists. But the court wants the supreme court to decide the issue more finally.
Measure Forbidding Local Governments From Using Red-Light Cameras Advances
Sen. Jeff Brandes’ measure would repeal a law known as the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act of 2010 and, as a result, prevent local governments from using the cameras for traffic enforcement.
Palm Coast Back-Pats Its Grim Luck: Red-Light Camera Suit Dismissed After Plaintiff’s Death
Palm Coast’s decision not to settle a lawsuit against it had looked like a mistake once the Supreme Court ruled red-light cameras illegal, until the plaintiff died and was not replaced on the lawsuit, allowing the city to slither out of the it.
Supreme Court Turns Down Red-Light Camera Appeal, Leaving In Place Restrictions On Who May Issue Tickets
The Florida Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal on a red-light camera case with a direct bearing on Palm Coast’s traffic-enforcement program. Five justices concurred in turning down the appeal, without explanation, as is customary when the court turns down a case.
Gutted Bill Restricting Red-Light Cameras Advances as Turn-On-Red Penalty Is Restored
While the restrictive proposal cleared its latest committee, 7-3, the bill’s only surviving measures would require cities to send our red-light camera notices by certified mail, and to use revenue for public safety programs.
Palm Coast Votes 3-2 to End Red-Light Camera Contract in 2017 and Reduce Flashers To 5
A divided council still disagrees on the red-light cameras’ value. The city is being sued, but says the payout, should there be one, will be manageable.
Bill Banning Red-Light Camera Tickets for Right-Turn on Red Sails Through House Panel
The proposal and one like it in the Senate would further complicate Palm Coast’s troubled red-light camera program and its relationship with ATS, the private company running the local scheme. Right-turn on red tickets generate the majority of revenue.
Palm Coast Would End Its Red-Light Camera Program With ATS in Two Years
The city would also reduce all operating cameras from 43 to just five. But it would also see its revenue per camera drop, from the current $700 per month to $350 per month. The city’s revenue from the cameras would drop from $361,000 to $21,000.
In Fear of ATS: The Palm Coast City
Council’s Red-Light Camera Delusions
After coming close to suspending its red-light camera [program, the Palm Coast City Council has retreated, again exposing a willingness to do its camera vendor’s bidding before looking after its residents’ interests.
Palm Coast May Reduce Red-Light Cameras to 5, But Won’t Scrap Program For Fear of ATS
Fearful of a lawsuit from ATS, its red-light camera provider. the Palm Coast City Council says it would reduce the cameras from 43 to five, but not eliminate them, even if it means ending all its revenue from the cameras but preserving that of ATS.
Palm Coast Close To Suspending Red-Light Camera Program as Legal Challenges Mount
By all appearances from the council’s discussion this morning, the council is ready to end its program as it is now configured, with a final decision to be taken on March 3.
Palm Coast Council Weighing Suspending Red-Light Camera Program Entirely
The Palm Coast City Council is considering suspending–but not ending–its red-light camera program until courts rule more conclusively on the legality of the system.
Palm Coast Suspends Part of Red-Light Camera Enforcement, But $158 Fines Still Being Issued
While still issuing $158 fines for red-light violations, Palm Coast is for now no longer pursuing drivers who refuse to pay, so those drivers will not get the steeper $264 traffic citation. But those citations may be issued pending the outcome of a court case.
Palm Coast Broods as Ruling Declares Key Step in Red-Light Camera Ticketing Illegal
You may be better off not paying your red-light camera ticket in light of a court decision declaring issuance of those tickets illegal. Palm Coast is studying the ruling as its cameras continue to flash.
Palm Coast On Red-Light Camera
Ticket Refunds: Don’t Hold Your Breath
While the Palm Coast City Council took no responsibility for instituting a red-light camera program the Supreme Court declared illegal, the city attorney laid out arguments that could keep the city from reimbursing $1.2 million in illegally levied fines before July 2010. But the city is taking a wait-and-see attitude.
In a Stinging Defeat for Palm Coast Government, Supreme Court Rules Pre-2010 Red-Light Cameras Illegal
Palm Coast is on the hook for $1.19 million in fines it illegally imposed on drivers between 2007 and 2010, when it ran 10 red-light cameras outside state law. The Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-2 today that such schemes were not permissible. Palm Coast was sued but refused to settle, as did American Traffic Solutions, its contractor. So the city may now have to pay up.
This Time Palm Coast Shows Up in Court, But Source of Red-Light Camera Hitch Unresolved
Hundreds of red-light camera tickets issued by ATS, the private company running Palm Coast’s red-light camera system, end up undelivered, triggering court-issued citations and, often, suspended licenses, even though it’s neither the driver’s nor the city of Palm Coast’s fault–but rather ATS’s inability or unwillingness to better follow through on undelivered mail.
Palm Coast Council Members Declare Never To Have Been Wined and Dined by Red-Light Camera Company
The member-by-member assertion never to have accepted money or gifts from American Traffic Solutions, the red-light camera company that runs Palm Coast’s system, contrasts with an industry known for its lavish spending on lobbying state and local government officials.
Drive to Scrap Red-Light Cameras by Referendum Ends as Palm Coast Grapples With Consequences of Severing Contract
Palm Coast’s contract with ATS to run the city’s red-light cameras runs through September 2019 but is mostly silent on monetary penalties should the city opt out. An earlier version of the contract had granted Palm Coast the authority to end it without cause, but the city inexplicably scrapped that provision in 2012.
Palm Coast Memo on Red-Light Camera Clash With Court Shows Missteps and Assumptions
The City of Palm Coast today submitted a 16-page memo to Flagler County Judge Melissa Moore-Stens explaining, without apologies, its absence from a hearing before the judge on April 30, an absence it sought to justify while hinting at blaming the court for being unclear about its intentions.
Palm Coast Council May Consider Red-Light Camera Referendum, But Wants More Talk
There were no dramatic moves Tuesday evening among council members or from the city manager. A dozen members of the public addressed the issue, as did City Manager Jim Landon, as did most of the council members and the mayor. But in the end, the most conclusive action was that the council should talk the matter over more thoroughly at a workshop soon.
Red-Light Cameras, Guns, Pot, Tax Cuts: Rating the 2014 Legislative Session
Florida lawmakers ended the 2014 legislative session after passing a budget and a flurry of other bills dealing with issues such as child welfare and school vouchers. But hundreds of bills died as lawmakers headed home to gear up for re-election campaigns. Here are 10 issues that passed during the session and 10 issues that failed.
Mayor and City Manager Rethink Red-Light Cameras’ Fate as Council Member Proposes Referendum
With City Manager Landon saying drivers are feeling harassed by red-light cameras, Mayor Netts losing faith in their original purpose and council member Bill McGuire proposing an outright referendum on the matter, the backlash against ATS’s cameras has become so strong that the council will next week discuss the possibility of eliminating them.
For 2nd Time in 6 Weeks, a Flagler Judge Declares Palm Coast’s Red-Light Camera System “Improper” and Issues Stern Order
After a hearing on red-light camera citations where Palm Coast was, inappropriately, a no-show, Flagler County Judge Melissa Moore-Stens on Wednesday ordered the city to show why it was circumventing the court’s authority by telling drivers they could settle their camera citations by directly paying the city rather than follow legally required steps–and pay fines–through the court system.
Red-Light Cameras Won’t Be Repealed This Year, But Restrictions on Profits May Yet Pass
Red-light cameras’ powerful lobby defeated Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Brandes’s attempt to end the use of the devices, but several proposed restrictions are still moving through the Legislature, such as limiting profits to safety uses and requiring safety studies before cameras can be installed.
Measure to Cut Local Red-Light Camera Revenue Falters as Cities Cry Foul
A lawmaker had initially proposed that the state ban new red-light cameras while reducing the fine from $158 to $83, eliminating the money local governments could collect. The outcry from local governments over his initial proposal to eliminate the money demonstrated that the issue is strictly about money, he said.
Judge Craig Indicts Palm Coast’s “Bad Faith” Red-Light Cameras and Exposes City’s Legal Flaws as He Contests Violation
In a half-hour hearing before Palm Coast’s red-light violations officer, Flagler Circuit Judge Dennis Craig on Thursday ridiculed the city’s guilty-until-proven-innocent standard as well as the council’s claim that cameras are intended to improve safety. The city dismissed his citation not on the grounds he raised, but by inventing a case of “prudent” driving that the evidence did not show.
Palm Coast’s Red-Light Cameras: How the City Council Locked In a Fraud on Taxpayers Through 2019
Palm Coast’s red-light cameras siphon off more than $2.5 million out of the local economy every year, in the share that goes to the state and to ATS, the company that runs the scheme, yet the city council quietly approved the deal through 2019, long past the terms of every one of the council members and some of their successors.
Busy Tallahassee as Red-Light Camera Ban, Pension Phase-Out and Pot Phase-In Animate Lawmakers
Lawmakers seemed to be drawing closer this week to giving a green light to a limited form of medical marijuana, while some of them complained that red-light cameras were spreading across the state like weeds.
State Study Skeptical of Red-Light Cameras’ Effectiveness Buoys Senator’s Push For Repeal
The report from theFlorida Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability found there were fewer fatalities but more crashes at electronically monitored intersections, and that fines issued due to the technology cost motorists nearly $119 million last year. The study cast doubt on cameras as safety-inducing devices.
Proposed Law Would Halt New Red-Light Cameras and Cut Fines By Half to End Profits
Besides no longer allowing municipalities and counties to install red light cameras after July 1, the proposal would cut fins to $83 and allow local governments to impose only a $25 surcharge on tickets to fund the existing systems, which would be allowed to continue. That would lower Palm Coast’s and its private provider’s take by two thirds, likely rendering the system too expensive to run.
They’re Not Speed Traps: New Spy Cameras on U.S. 1 in Palm Coast Aimed at Overweight Trucks
Crews last week installed video cameras on both sides of U.S. 1 between Royal Palms Parkway and Whiteview Parkway as part of a $1.2 million project to monitor the weight of large trucks. Additional cameras will go up by the northbound lanes of U.S. 1, near the weigh station.
Justices Skeptical of Red-Light Cameras as Supreme Court Hears Case Affecting Palm Coast
With one insistent exception, Florida Supreme Court justices on Thursday strongly questioned the legality of city ordinances that permitted red-light traffic cameras that spread around Florida before 2010, when the state standardized those systems. Cities like Palm Coast may have to refund fines should the court rule against the local ordinances.
Palm Coast Getting Fleeced of Red-Light Camera Dollars, Harming Local Economy
In September, the 43 red-light cameras in Palm Coast generated $255,740 in fines, what would work out to an annual total of $3 million. The state and ATS, the private company running the system, took more than seven times the revenue share left Palm Coast, which means that the overwhelming majority of the money is leaving the local economy.
Snap-and-Run: Sheriff Looking for Driver Who Sheared Off Red-Light Camera Pole
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a vehicle captured on video that struck an ATS red light traffic camera pole on Moody Boulevard (State Road 100) at the intersection of Memorial Medical Parkway in Palm Coast. The pole belongs to American Traffic Solutions, the Arizona-based company that runs the red-light spy-and-snap camera system for Palm Coast.
Lawmakers File Bill to Prohibit Red-Light Cameras in Florida as Palm Coast Snaps On
GOP Sen. Jeff Brandes blames red-light cameras “as backdoor tax increases,” but the Palm Coast City Council Tuesday reasserted its commitment to its 43 cameras even as they siphon out more than $3 million a year from the local economy–in taxes to state government, and in revenue to ATS, the Arizona-based company that runs the system.
Florida Supreme Court’s New Term: Death Penalty, Utility Rates, Red-Light Cameras
The court faces high-profile cases that deal with issues such as medical malpractice, red-light cameras, utility rates and the death penalty. In some of the cases, justices have already heard arguments and could rule any week. In others, the cases still are percolating and have not gone to arguments.
Supreme Court to Hear Red-Light Camera Challenge in Case That Will Affect Palm Coast
The $1.7 million Palm Cast reaped in red-light camera fines between 2008 and 2010 may be at stake if the Florida Supreme Court rules such systems illegal after it hears the much-anticipated case on Oct. 8, with ramifications for numerous cities and counties across the state.
Red-Light Running Causes 2-Vehicle Wreck on Palm Coast Parkway and Boulder Rock, Hurting 2
Emily Palisoc, a 16-year-old Palm Coast resident and former Miss Junior Flagler County, and Rute Costa, 30, collied at the intersection and were both sent to Florida Hospital Flagler. Red-light cameras will reveal which of the two ran a red light.
Palm Coast Sours on Traffic Cameras, Calling Fines “Outrageous,” “Overkill” and “Unfriendly”
In a surprising and radical shift, Palm Coast City Manager Jim Landon used harsh words to describe the city’s red-light camera program, saying that while the system makes intersections safer, its harsh punishments are out of proportion with the crime, and Palm Coast’s drivers–and the city’s image–are suffering as a result. But he is less clear on how to improve the system, which he does not want dismantled.
Palm Coast Pledges to Stick to $158 Red-Light Camera Fines and Tackle Vanished Payments
The Palm Coast City Council will forego adopting steeper fines, of up to $408, for red-light camera tickets, but it has yet to find a solution to a problem particular to the city: the large number of people who pay their tickets but whose payments appear never to register with ATS, the company managing–and profiting from–the system, causing drivers headaches and additional costs.
Palm Coast Mayor Netts Would “Violently Protest” Raising Red-Light Fines From $158
New legislation gives local governments like Palm Coast authority to raise red-light camera ticket fines to $408 if a drivers contests the ticket and loses. Netts’s opposition signals a slight but discernible shift in the mayor’s thinking about red-light cameras.
Red-Light Camera Fines May Go Up to $408 and Be Harder to Fight Under Newest Rules
A new law awaiting Gov. Scott’s signature returns hearings to the control of local governments that have red-light cameras, such as Palm Coast, and allows them to impose an additional fee of $250 on top of $158 tickets, when contested, among other changes.