I read on The Associated Press that the state Senate Public Safety Committee has given initial approval, 5-1, to a bill that could ban the use of photo radar in Arizona…which kind of has become a yearly attempt at this point. 

SB 1167, introduced by state Sens. Kelli Ward, a Republican from Lake Havasu City, John Kavanagh, R-Scottsdale, Judy Burgess, R-Surprise, and Kimberly Yee, R-Phoenix, hasn’t been received well with police departments that allege speeding and other violations in areas with these cameras have decreased.

Ward and other opponents of the apparatus have said this photo traffic enforcement violates the U.S. Constitution protections against unreasonable searches. 

Last year, the Pima County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to end the county’s contract with American Traffic Solutions, the company that runs the photo radar shenanigans here, saying they might place them in school zones. At the time, the ATS suggested the county use a mobile photo enforcement method. You know, those trucks or SUVs parked on the side of the road. 

In Tucson, a group by the name of Tucson Traffic Justice is gathering signatures to get the issue on the ballot this year. They need around 12,000 by June, and the question would be on the November city election.

The state Senate bill is now heading to the floor after it undergoes a “constitutional review.” This is one of three tackling the issue; there are two others in the state House. 

This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2015.

I was born and raised in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I moved to Tucson about 10 years ago. Since I was old enough to enjoy reading, I developed an interest in writing, and telling stories through different...

8 replies on “Bill That Wants to Ban Use of Photo Radar in Arizona Gets Initial OK”

  1. 1. The camera in the photo is for video detection.
    2. Shenanigans? You mean providing 24/7 enforcement?
    3. The school zone cameras are good, ped zone cameras would be even better. Multi-threat crashes kill.
    4. What we need is a network of cameras to mitigate speeding.
    5. Updating/upgrading signal detection across the region would help improve flows.
    6. A mandatory 35mph speed limit across the board woukd be awesome too.

  2. These speed traps make the city of Tucson look even sleazer then usual.
    I can see the need for them safety wise, but the sleazyness of shortening the yellow to catch people and desputing of the crossing of the “line” along with charging people to contest them, Is what I find pretty sleazy. Not to mentio people are going to run the red light no matter what, camera or no camera.

  3. Why does the Legislature bother with a Constitutional review? They pass scores of laws, regardless of the constitutionality of those laws, every year. They then spend millions of tax dollars on lawyers while losing court fights to implement those unconstitutional laws, laws that they were told violated the Constitution, but passed anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of this state’s budget trouble could be solved by not passing unconstitutional laws in the first place and staying out of court.

  4. Here is how you analyze the legislature. Anything Kelli Ward or Kimberly Yee are part of are totally wrong for Arizona as a whole. So Kelli, I guess there is a constitutional right to run red lights? Doesn’t even affect you one iota in Mohave County, as there are none I that county. For nuts like Ward, the Constitution is only good if they agree with it. So how is your Constitutional buddy, Clive Bundy these days, Kelli?

  5. Can you say hypocrite? I believe Karen Uhlich was on the city council when they turned down a grant from Target Corp for cctv crime and safety cams several years ago, but she’s happy to keep supporting traffic cams that lie, cheat and steal from good Tucsonans.

  6. Actually the camera in the photo is to aid the timing of the signals, not an enforcement camera. I wonder why someone from the Weekly couldn’t run out and snap an actual Tucson red light camera instead of choosing an incorrect stock photo. (I do photo research for a living so these half-assed errors bug me.)

    I wish the legislature would just leave this alone. The red light cameras are useful. In Tucson they’ve been shown to reduce accidents at those intersections. The speed cameras were a dumb idea and I’m glad those are gone.

    I’m sick of drivers whining about their right to be in the intersection illegally. I do understand the concern about the cameras being rigged to catch too many drivers just to generate revenue, but everything I’ve read seem to indicate that the ones in Tucson are pretty fair and square. And it’s really not difficult to not get caught. I’ve never gotten a ticket from a camera, and so can you if you just drive right.

  8. Donklyoti: Tucson’s photo enforcement system is far from “fair and square.” If another 0.5 seconds were added to the left yellows, the program would dry up on its own due to lack of revenue, as it would if the program enforced intersection boundaries where most prudent, conscientious drivers expect those boundaries to be, instead of making up a so-called wait line. There’s no getting around it: the heart of Tucson’s photo enforcement program is intentionally bad traffic engineering, which leads to driver confusion, which leads to revenue.

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