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Mississippi makes red-light cameras illegal

Red-light cameras have generated a great deal of controversy over their …

They may be advertised as speeding deterrents to city councils and safety tools to worried parents, but according to another school of thought, red-light cameras are all about making money. It's not clear whether the systems are always pitched as profit generators from day one or if the city government, confronted with a sudden jump in ticket revenue, makes its own decision to shorten yellow lights. The correlations, however, are there. There's weak evidence that the red-light cameras reduce accidents at certain intersections (though the severity of those accidents may actually rise), but there's no doubt that they provide a major source of revenue at a time when cities are hurting for funds.

Mississippi is bucking this trend on a state level. There are only a handful of cameras actually in use in that state—in the cities of Jackson and Columbus—but it's better to deal with the problem now, before the red-light cameras become entrenched and cities begin relying on them for critical revenue. Jackson and Columbus have until October 1 to uninstall the cameras, and Jackson is already uninstalling their system. Other towns that were in various states of contract negotiations, including McComb, Natchez, Southaven, and Tupelo are apparently reexamining their installation contracts with the camera contractors given the new law.

The order to shut the cameras down is still controversial; the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald quotes Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton saying, "We were interested in them for safety. The only person that's going to get in trouble or get a ticket is the person who runs a red light." Unfortunately, Mr. Mayor, that's not true. We've previously covered instances where teens pranked each other by speeding through a known red-light intersection with a printed copy of someone else's license plate inserted over their own (because nothing is funnier than a $200 fine, right?). There's also anecdotal evidence that red-light cameras have been caught ticketing people for turning right on a red light when doing so was both legal and appropriate.

Even if the cameras themselves functioned with 100 percent accuracy and saw through all attempts to spoof a license plate, there are still issues surrounding their deployment, including city officials' willingness to short-time yellow lights to catch more drivers, even though doing so actually reduces safety. Red-light camera deployment could also raise some rather nasty ethical questions, depending on what, exactly, they are used for. Last week we discussed Chicago's evaluation of a red-light camera system that would fine drivers for not having insurance.

Red-light cameras may sound great on paper, but they're an idea whose time may never come. There's no room in the system for manual inspection (the automation is what keeps it cheap), the officials in charge of the program inevitably come under pressure to milk this marvelous cash cow they've discovered, and the cameras are easily spoofed or sometimes just plain wrong.

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