03/14/08
In most major cities, those cameras attached to traffic lights are installed with minimal fuss, but a Georgia Senate bill making it more difficult for local governments to install the technology was stopped on Wednesday.
Opponents of the traffic cameras, which snap photos of drivers who don't stop at red lights, say that this technology is an intrusion on personal liberties. Senator John Wiles, R-Marietta told the press, "You can't cross-examine a camera."
The bill, sponsored by state Senator Jack Murphy, would require local governments in Georgia to apply to the state Department of Transportation, and demonstrate that such cameras are needed to prevent traffic violations, before being allowed to install them, so that they're not just a source of income for the city or county in question. "We think they need to be for health and safety, and not for revenue," the Republican from Cumming told reporters.
Murphy said that the cameras are already operating in roughly thirty cities in Georgia, and that numbers will continue to grow without any oversight.
Supporters of the cameras say that going after drivers' by targeting their wallets is effective. (Drivers captured on film have to pay fines.)
Says state Senator John Douglas, R-Social Circle, "Unless we're going to fund a cop at every corner there is no better way than this camera system to get people to stop running red lights and change their driving habits."
After Senators tried to attach several different amendments to the traffic camera bill, including one that would have directed camera-related fines into the state's trauma system (since the majority of Georgia trauma cases are from traffic accidents) Lt. Governor Casey Cagle ruled that most of the amendments weren't relevant to the bill.
The Senate then voted, 49-4, to table the measure, which will be reconsidered in committee.
