St. Louis city officials push back the rollout of red-light cameras

St. Louis Daily Record & St. Louis Countian, Mar 30, 2007 by Allison Retka

St. Louis drivers and attorneys have a few more weeks before having to deal with the implications of cameras snapping pictures of red-light runners.

City authorities have pushed back the rollout of red-light cameras in the city until mid-to-late April, said Ed Rhode, spokesman for Mayor Francis Slay.

That will give the city time to deal with computer problems at the court level and attorneys more time to prepare for a possible onslaught of clients wondering whether they can beat the high-tech traffic cops.

The photo tickets are a growing trend locally. St. Louis has installed cameras at two intersections. Florissant, St. Peters and Arnold have them issuing tickets already. Kansas City says it is about to add some as well and Webster Groves is considering it.

Each camera in St. Louis is catching an average of 450 red-light violations a month in the trial run alone. With such a wealth of potential tickets, attorneys are debating whether the tickets are prosecutable if the driver cannot be identified and whether footage from the still and video cameras is public record.

How they work

The red-light cameras that will soon be fully operational in St. Louis, located at the intersections of Hampton Avenue and Wilson Avenue and Hampton and Chippewa Street, are triggered by cars that enter the intersection while the stoplight is red.

The camera takes two high-resolution photos - one of the car behind the stop line or crosswalk with the red light visible ahead, and one of the car in the middle of the intersection with the light still red.

The photos and an accompanying 12-second video clip - the video cameras are constantly filming - are transmitted to ATS's headquarters in Arizona, where staffers crop the photos and zoom in on the car's license plates. Once the plates are run through a registration system, the photos and registration information are sent to the police department operating the camera.

The footage waits in a "queue" until a police officer examines the photos, watches the video and approves a traffic citation.

St. Louis ordinances require police to issue a citation within 60 days of the violation, but usually the citation is mailed to the violator within three to five days of the driver zooming through a red light.

The citation itself includes three color photographs captured by the camera and directs the drivers to a Web site where they can access the photos and watch the video of their alleged violation.

In St. Louis, each camera captured about 15 red-light violations a day.

Handling a red light ticket

Because the fines are relatively minimal, usually between $75 and $100, many people may choose to pay the tickets, said Doug Heagler, a Clayton attorney who handles traffic violations. Tickets from the St. Louis cameras will be $100 - $31 of the ticket goes to ATS.

For those who contest the tickets, it remains to be seen how St. Louis prosecutors will react, he said.

"Every municipality is going to handle it differently," Heagler said. "Some prosecutors are very strict about things in their community."

Nick Zotos, a St. Louis attorney who handles traffic violations, has contested red-light tickets for clients in Arnold and said the city prosecutor "hasn't made a fuss" about amending tickets for a lesser violation.

But he said the traditional arguments against red-light cameras still come into play.

"It's pretty simple: If you can't identify the driver, you don't have a case," Zotos said.

It's important to remind clients of this fact, said Wendy Thornburg, a St. Louis attorney with Tuteur & Associates, which runs the Web site PulledOver.com.

"It's almost impossible to tell who's actually driving the car," Thornburg said. "If you loan the car to someone and they run a red light, you have to pay the ticket. That's how I would contest it."

The city of Florissant opted to issue its red-light tickets as public safety offenses instead of moving violations that count against a driving record.

"I think that's why Florissant made theirs a public safety offense, because they knew we would fight them all that way," Thornburg said.

If clients call in with traffic citations from red-light cameras, she urged attorneys to find out if they were actually driving the car. If it was them behind the wheel, it would cost clients more to have an attorney contest the ticket. But if they were not driving the car at the time of the violation, there's strong reason to fight the ticket, Thornburg said.

Kansas City attorneys also have questions and concerns about the soon-to-be-installed cameras in their area.

Using the cameras to capture violators seems to put the burden of proof on the defendant, instead of the city, Aimee Gromowsky, defense attorney, said. If a driver runs a red light, he or she is sent a bill and if the citation isn't paid, a warrant will be issued.

Gromowsky said usually the defendant is given a court date and they have the option to fight it.

"Now, what's the average Joe going to do when he gets the bill in the mail? He will probably just pay it. That's not what the justice system is about. It's supposed to protect," she said.