The classic democratic tension between liberty and security was tested once again this morning on legislation banning traffic-enforcement cameras on Iowa roads and highways.
For today at least, liberty won out: a House subcommittee voted to advance the ban on red-light and speeding cameras to the full transportation committee.
It was the security side, though, that dominated the hour-long hearing. A slate of police, city and insurance officials testified before the three-lawmaker panel that the cameras have made roadways and intersections safer and calmer, referencing an Iowa State University report as well as statistics and anecdotes from across Iowa.
Speeding camera systems have led to substantial decreases in crashes and instances of drivers running red lights in Cedar Rapids, said Cedar Rapids Police Capt. Steve O’Konek. The automated systems, moreover, have allowed the department to “redeploy� officers to other duties. The systems are accurate, he said, and backed up by an adequate appeals process.
In Des Moines, speeding cameras installed on Interstate-235 have led to “amazing� changes in traffic patterns, said Des Moines Police Capt. Doug Harvey. Speeding, wild lane-changes and other instances of aggressive driving have been diminished in a way that traditional speeding enforcement couldn’t achieve on the busy freeway, where stops can be disruptive to traffic flows.
“The amount of traffic weaving in and out on a day-to-day basis is so much better and I hear that from a lot of people,� Harvey said.
The cameras may even contribute to Iowa’s comparatively low insurance rates, said Tom Stanberry, a lobbyist for the Iowa Insurance Institute.
“Iowa has some of the lowest premiums for automobile insurance in the nation. We’d like to keep it that way,� Stanberry said. “We think the use of ATEs, and the manner that they have been used, does just that. It’s going to reduce violations, it’s going to reduce accidents and it’s going to assist in holding down premium increases for auto insurance.�
(ATEs is an acronym for “automated traffic enforcement,� a term used to describe traffic camera systems.)
The side of liberty was represented by Des Moines radio talker Simon Conway, a tall sheaf of citizen signatures and, as was made clear as the hearing went on, a majority of the lawmakers considering the bill.
The cameras are near-universally loathed by average Iowans, Conway told the panel, citing the approximately 10,000 signatures he collected in a petition drive against them and the call-in traffic from his drive-time show on WHO Radio.
“I would say, probably, 99-to-1, people are so opposed to these things. They hate them. They absolutely understand this is a way of generating revenue,� Conway said. “We are told consistently it’s not about revenue, it’s about our safety. No one is buying that for a second, and people don’t like being lied to.�
Even the petition drive – which ended with Conway and ACLU of Iowa executive director Ben Stone presenting the signatures to Gov. Terry Branstad last week – was a citizen-led, grassroots effort, Conway testified. One of his listeners was so passionate about banning cameras that he collected and submitted 1,400 signatures on his own.
Sitting across a table from police officers and municipal officials from around the state, Conway accused cities of installing traffic cameras solely to raise revenue, challenged their research findings as “smoke and mirrors� and suggested that cameras cause as many accidents as they avert.
Reps. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls, and Ralph Watts, R-Adel, said after the hearing that they would advance the bill to the full House Transportation Committee. The lone Democrat on the panel, Patrick Murphy, of Dubuque, indicated he also would sign off on advancing the bill.
(Legislative leaders in both the House and Senate have given little indication of their interest in pushing the bill should it clear the committee process.)
The measure, House File 2048, bans outright the use of cameras for traffic enforcement, and requires cities currently using camera systems to remove them by July 1 of this year. The total ban goes much further than a bill that passed the House but faltered in the Senate last year, which put restrictions on how the cameras could be deployed and limited fines for violations.
Watts asked several times during the hearing where law enforcement was heading with the use of cameras. Use of monitoring devices by government is fundamentally different, he said, than cameras used by private businesses, and raises important concerns about privacy and intrusion.
Rogers, afterward, echoed those concerns.
“How much of a police state do we want to have?� he asked.
Tags: iowa house, Patrick Murphy, Ralph Watts, red light cameras, speeding cameras, Terry Branstad, Walt Rogers
Article source: http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2012/01/25/traffic-camera-ban-clears-house-subcommittee/
