TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A Tuscaloosa attorney is challenging the city’s ability to charge residents with traffic tickets using red light cameras, saying they violate the U.S. Constitution.
Tuscaloosa-based lawyer Stuart Albea said his client Tim Burch, a 44-year-old Northport resident, was ticketed after turning left through a red light at a major Tuscaloosa intersection. Albea said the ordinance is unconstitutional because the city isn’t required to prove who was driving before issuing a ticket.
“They’ve taken a criminal statute, running a red light, and they’ve removed the part where they have to prove who did it and they call that a civil fine,” Albea told the Tuscaloosa News. “They’re not required to show who was driving the car, so they’re imposing a civil fine on somebody who they haven’t shown has done anything wrong. It’s a ruse, a revenue-generating ruse.”
The ability for municipalities in Alabama to install red light cameras is relatively new.
According to a 2015 report from the Alabama Department of Transportation, there is currently no statewide law either allowing or banning the use of cameras at red lights, but the legislature has given some cities, including Tuscaloosa and Montgomery, permission to use the technology in 2010.
21 states explicitly permit the use of such cameras, while 10 states ban them, and 19 states, including Alabama, have no statewide law.
In March of this year two Florida traffic judges threw out more than 24,000 pending red light camera cases, ruling that the program violated state law. Lawyers in that case also contend the law violates the U.S. Constitution.
The Florida law has increased revenue from traffic violations by $100 million since its implementation, giving cities a financial incentive to continue the program.
As for Tuscaloosa, the Tuscaloosa News reports there 3,574 tickets issued between January and June 2015 and 5,198 during all of 2014 from the nine monitored intersections.
“At this point, the city needs to scrap the system, refund all the money they’ve collected and create a new system, if that’s what they want to do,” Albea said.
The attorney is seeking class action status, so other Tuscaloosa residents who have received a ticket through the red light camera system can join the lawsuit.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
