Published Friday, November 06, 2009 6:05 AM

Cameras hot issue in other cities, too

By CASSIE SMITH
cassie.smith@theeagle.com

College Station voters weren't the only ones to take a stand against red light cameras this week.

Residents in two Ohio cities -- Chillicothe and Heath -- voted to remove their cities' cameras in separate elections Tuesday.

Opposition to the cameras was 72 percent in Chillicothe and 51 percent in Heath, according to a story published in The Washington Post on Thursday.

Voters in College Station opted to overturn the city's photo enforcement of selected intersections 52 percent to 48 percent.

Brazos County elections officials said the issue created an unexpectedly high turnout at polls on Tuesday, with 7,890 people casting ballots.

But residents in the three cities aren't alone in their call for the removal of red light cameras.

Critics across the country have called traffic enforcement cameras unconstitutional, arguing that the devices actually increase accidents at red lights and said cities are using them as a way to make money.

The Washington Post article said about 11 elections have been held on traffic enforcement cameras, and the vote has gone against the devices every time.

The governors of Mississippi and Montana banned the cameras earlier this year, according to the story, and in April, 86 percent of voters in Sulphur, La., called for the city's red light program to end.

But not everyone is against the cameras.

In Millington, Tenn., city leaders approved an ordinance Monday that calls for the installation of six red light cameras. And in Houston, 70 cameras continue to monitor intersections in a program that began in 2006.

In Arizona, where the company that operates College Station's red light cameras is headquartered, the leader of an effort to ban the cameras told The Washington Post that he'll have no problems getting the issue on a statewide ballot next year.

And even the sheriff in Pinal County, Ariz., is against them.

Paul Babeu told the Washington Post reporter that he had the cameras removed the day after he took office in January because they tie fundraising to law enforcement, don't cut down on accidents and render people "guilty until proven innocent."

Those same arguments were centerpieces of the campaign to kick the cameras out of College Station.

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