Push for test of red-light cameras dies again

By Paul Takahashi

Saturday, March 26, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Another legislative push to allow red-light cameras in North Las Vegas has crashed and burned.

North Las Vegas Police had tried in two consecutive sessions of the Legislature to repeal a ban on the traffic cameras to catch drivers who blow through red lights.

This time around, the Nevada Transportation Department took on the effort, drafting Assembly Bill 34 “repealing the prohibition on the use of photographic, video or digital equipment to gather evidence to use for issuing traffic citations.”

But the department yanked the measure from the Assembly Transportation Committee last week after concerns such as privacy were raised again.

“A lot of questions came up (from legislators), and it just didn’t have a lot of support,” department spokesman Scott Magruder said. “Too much controversy.”

Detractors were especially concerned with the “vague” language in the bill, he said.

“The wording got muddied up with catching speeders” instead of just red-light runners, he said. “That was not our intent. We have other bills that are more of a priority.”

Among those priorities is Senate Bill 235 — the seat belt bill — being heard by the Senate Transportation Committee this week. The proposal for a tougher seat belt law would allow officers to pull over a vehicle if they see a driver or passenger not wearing a seat belt. Current law permits officers to ticket someone for the offense only if stopped for another offense.

Chad Dornsife, executive director of Best Highway Safety Practices Institute, is opposed to both bills. He said he is “ecstatic” the red-light camera bill was dropped.

“I’m glad it was pulled because it’s not a safety issue, but a revenue issue,” he said. “They’re an abuse of police powers. If we want safety, there are things we can do to engineer the intersection to make the signal timing better.”

North Las Vegas Police spokesman Tim Bedwell said he hopes the red-light camera issue does not go away with AB34.

“We’re disappointed each time that it doesn’t make it through the Legislature,” he said. “It’s a public safety tool that we’re not allowed to use in Nevada … the cameras are proven to be effective.”

North Las Vegas’ efforts to bring a camera program to the city were buttressed this year by a new national study that found red-light cameras in other cities are cutting down on intersection deaths. However, with budget cuts sapping the cash-strapped police department, it may not have enough time or the resources to launch another red-light camera lobby in the Legislature, Bedwell said.

“Hopefully we can try again in two years, but we’re operating at minimum capacity,” he said. “It’s disappointing because we see it on a firsthand basis. We always wonder whether this crash could’ve happened if there were red-light cameras.”