When Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) signed a bill banning red light cameras on May 5, 2009, Montana added itself to a growing list of states that prohibit photo enforcement. In total, fifteen states and nine cities now prohibit this form of ticketing. The following list includes links to the full text of each statute or legal decision prohibiting the use of photo radar or red light cameras.

Some measures require explanation. In Arkansas, for example, state law authorizes police to use a photo radar gun if the officer personally delivers the ticket at the time of the violation. This does no more than allow a photograph to be used in conjunction with a traditional traffic stop and serves as an unconditional ban on automated enforcement. In Utah, the legislature has placed so many restrictions on the use of photo radar — specifically, banning outsourcing of the ticketing process to private, for-profit companies — that no city uses speed cameras. This serves as an “effective ban” on photo enforcement. The list also excludes states like Florida where photo enforcement is illegal but local jurisdictions ignore the law in the hopes that they will not be sued before the legislature retroactively approves their use of photo ticketing.

Cameras have also been banned at a local level by referendum. In 2009, eighty-six percent of Sulphur, Louisiana rejected speed cameras. The November elections included three votes: 72 percent said no in Chillicothe, Ohio; Heath, Ohio and College Station, Texas also rejected cameras. In 2008, residents in Cincinnati, Ohio rejected red light cameras. Seventy-six percent of Steubenville, Ohio voters rejected photo radar in 2006. In the mid-1990s, speed cameras lost by a two-to-one margin in Peoria, Arizona and Batavia, Illinois. In 1997, voters in Anchorage, Alaska banned cameras even after the local authorities had removed them. In 2003, 64 percent of voters in Arlington, Texas voted down “traffic management cameras” that opponents at the time said could be converted into ticketing cameras. Photo enforcement has never survived a public vote.

Source: Thenewspaper.com