JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- Supporters of traffic light surveillance cameras travelled to Jefferson City Tuesday to defend the devices as important safety tools.
They are fighting efforts by some lawmakers to ban the cameras.
Last week, the Missouri Senate added an amendment banning red-light cameras to a broad bill on transportation issues.
Supporters of the ban argue the cameras violate due process because they cannot prove who was driving a car that runs a light.
"Municipalities use this presumption of guilt, not innocence, and punish Missourians based on the assumption that the person who owns the car is the driver of the car,” Sen. Jim Lembke, (R) St. Louis said.
However, red-light camera advocates said that the local ordinances in the three dozen Missouri communities allow the presumption of guilt to be disputed.
"They allow the owner who gets the notice to come in and say, 'I wasn't driving that car, so-and-so was driving it,” Former U.S. Attorney Ed Dowd said.
Advocates said the courts have already validated the use of disputable presumption.
"In Missouri, as in the rest of the country, red light safety systems are legal,” Dowd said.
Another criticism is that the cameras show bad faith that communities are more concerned about raking in dollars than protecting lives.
"It is not there to raise money because we have no idea whether that is the way it's gonna work,” Former Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman said. “It is strictly there for safety purposes and to make it possible to enforce the ordinance that we passed.”
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