NEW ORLEANS — Whether you’re driving a little too fast in a school zone or think you can make a yellow light and turn out to be wrong, you’ll get a bill in the mail if caught by the city’s traffic cameras.
One Louisiana lawmaker is trying to change that with new legislation that would put an end to red light and school zone cameras.
“All over the city, I keep getting ticketed,” One driver said. “It’s very frustrating.”
Like many drivers in New Orleans, Thomas Kelting has fallen victim to red light and school zone cameras more times than he can count.
But that might not be a problem for him much longer if State Senator Alan Seabaugh gets his way. The Louisiana lawmaker is introducing legislation that would prohibit speeding cameras and red light cameras.
“It’s a problem across the board, and I think this bill was a long time coming,” Seabaugh said.
He says these cameras come with several issues, but his top concern is that the money collected from tickets is going into the wrong pockets.
“It’s not the way our system is supposed to work, and I just have a problem with the entire concept,” Seabaugh said.
According to Seabaugh, fines from traditional speeding tickets help fund things like crime labs and law enforcement agencies, but that’s not the case when it comes to citations issued from red light and speeding cameras.
“The money is kept by the company who wrote the ticket and the municipality who hired them. It’s not about safety. It’s a money grab, that’s all it is,” Seabaugh said.
He says he doesn’t think the so-called money grab is even working.
“I haven’t seen a single study that showed that people are slowing down or being more careful or there are less accidents,” Seabaugh said.
The cameras were installed in New Orleans over a decade ago and never gained popularity. In 2020, an Inspector General report cited multiple problems with the program, including drivers being ticketed in school zones outside of school hours.
We reached out to Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s office for her thoughts on the legislation, but we haven’t heard back from her yet.
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