A personal hot-button issue that I have championed against may finally be getting the plug pulled.
Red Light Cameras came to Houston under former Mayor Bill White. They have been controversial since their installation, including comments on this blog back in 2007.
Today, the voters in the city decided by 52.8% to shut the cameras down.
While there’s a good chance the city and their vendor could go to court to challenge it, the public thinks that the “safety” gained by the cameras was not sufficient for all of the negative issues.
While anyone violating the law should be prosecuted, the failure to face your accuser is clearly a violation of our Constitutional rights. At the same time, a malfunction of the traffic signal or an emergency vehicle needing their access cleared did not stop the wrongful prosecution of citizens legally moving through the light.
Technology never will be able to replace human intuition, and the cost of these cameras would have better gone to putting more officers on the streets. Thanks to the voters of Houston, maybe that will finally happen.
