A UTC criminal justice professor has just the ticket for teaching.
Dr. Gale Iles opened a letter from the city of Chattanooga in early February to find a traffic citation for speeding. The ticket was written after a traffic camera photographed her car.
“It was my first ticket ever,” the criminal justice professor said.
Dr. Iles teaches her University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students about criminal courts, so she decided to check out the traffic court proceedings.
The week before her hearing, she went to the court and watched defendants plead their cases against tickets written by officers. For her own court appearance, some of her students went along.
“They thought I was going to get off,” she said. “What they saw is it really doesn’t matter who you are.”
Since getting the ticket, she has polled her criminal justice class about traffic cameras and has plans to do a campus-wide survey later this year to gauge students’ opinions of camera use, she said.
Dr. Iles said she decided to pay her $50 fine rather than appeal the citation, which would have cost about $250.
She said, though, that she still has questions as to whether Tennessee residents want traffic cameras and if using such cameras is constitutional at all.
“It’s very, very troubling to have a person come to court with a still photo and say you were speeding,” she said.
Since a ticket generated by a traffic camera is photo enforced and the penalty is limited to $50, the matter is civil. The burden of proof is much lower for civil charges than it is for criminal.
Chattanooga police Sgt. Gary Martin, who oversees photo enforcement, said many motorists complain about getting the tickets and prefer to have interaction with an officer.
Many people don’t realize that the photograph is reviewed by a police officer before a citation is issued, he said.
“Essentially, it’s the same thing,” he said.
Wade Scott, a Chattanooga resident, has been cited twice by red-light cameras, once in Red Bank and once in Chattanooga.
On Tuesday night, he spoke to the Chattanooga Public Safety Committee, questioning the constitutionality of the citations.
“What bothers me about this is the law was not voted in,” he said in a later telephone interview.
Dayton Long, a UTC senior criminal justice major, said he is bothered by removing officer discretion from the mix when issuing citations.
“Taking away discretion hinders the whole process,” he said.
Red Bank City Judge Johnny Houston said he understands people’s frustration with the cameras, but Tennessee courts have upheld challenges to the laws covering them.
“Whether or not people like them, they’re here to stay,” he said.
TRAFFIC CAMERA LEGISLATION
There are 17 bills in the Tennessee Legislature addressing traffic cameras. Some proposals include:
* A ban on traffic camera companies collecting a percentage of fines
* A two-year moratorium on new contracts for installation of cameras and renewals of existing contracts
* A graduated fine structure of $10 for the first offense, $25 for the second offense and $50 for the third and subsequent offenses
* Before a camera is installed, the municipality must conduct traffic engineering studies and intersection crash history that establishes rates higher than statewide crash rates for three years — or one year in special circumstances.
Source: Tennessee Legislature
Click here to vote in our daily poll: Would you go to court to contest a traffic-camera ticket?