Attorney’s crusade on speed cameras jeopardizes workers, schoolchildren
Virginia lawmakers will consider expanding the use of speed cameras during the 2024 General Assembly Session. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
Attorney and former state delegate Tim Anderson has a beef with speed cameras that monitor school and work zones around the commonwealth. Anderson, who’s based in Virginia Beach, has filed lawsuits in state and federal courts against the shutterbugs in Chesapeake and Suffolk.
“It is completely, totally profit policing,” the Republican told me.
Anderson said localities are skirting the regulations the General Assembly established when it passed legislation in 2020 allowing the cameras in highway work and school zones. Speed camera tickets are civil fines of up to $100 in Virginia. He offered mainly technical arguments against them.
On the state level, Anderson posited, camera vendors are impersonating local governments to collect the fines, so localities are breaking the law to maximize revenues. Also, alleged offenders should receive court dates immediately. If they did, the court system would be overwhelmed, forcing administrators to rethink the overall process.
With the federal suit, Anderson said, violators should have the right to question third-party vendors that regulate the cameras and oversee videos. Currently, defendants can’t confront their “accusers,” which violates the Sixth Amendment.
Spokespersons in Chesapeake and Suffolk said their cities don’t comment on pending litigation. That’s a standard response when municipalities have been sued.
I support the cameras’ purpose: reducing speeding scofflaws and improving safety. That’s a good thing. I’ve been caught by speed cameras in the metropolitan Washington area, and I knew I was driving above the posted limits.
In Virginia, motorists have to drive at least 10 miles above the speed limit to be photographed, so there’s wiggle room already. Violations occur because people don’t respect traffic laws. (You can add busting through red lights and not obeying stop signs, too. But I digress.)
Plenty of cities outside Virginia, by the way, operate speed cameras in places other than school or work zones. That includes busy thoroughfares and wide boulevards. The commonwealth hasn’t gone that far, though a bill to expand speed camera usage failed this year in the Assembly.
Anderson concedes he’s not aware of any other attorney in Virginia who’s jumped into the fray to challenge the cameras. That’s telling, because it suggests this could be a quixotic campaign. Nor is he suggesting his own clients obeyed speed limits.
More than a dozen localities in Virginia use the devices now, according to a Virginia State Police report released in February.
“It feels like to me that government is picking on people,” Anderson noted, adding he’s handling the cases pro bono. Anderson emailed me the complaints in the state lawsuit against the city of Suffolk and the federal lawsuit against the city of Chesapeake. One plaintiff is named in each case.
Yes, localities are raking in plenty of cash, and that infuriates the Virginia Beach attorney. Critics call the violations a backdoor tax – though I don’t understand why it’s OK for a police officer to pull over a speeding motorist, but advanced technology that catches speeders should be verboten.
The District of Columbia, by the way, can impose fines of up to $500 for speed camera violations. That’s much more expensive than here.
Chesapeake started speed camera monitoring in April 2022 and has since issued 160,000 citations, city spokesman Heath Covey told me by email. The city has raised roughly $9.8 million in revenues. Fewer violations are being issued now than since the program began, he said – suggesting more people are obeying the law.
For 2023, Suffolk collected nearly $8.7 million in school and work zone violations. Fairfax County, the state’s largest locality in population, reaped $800,000 in violations last year.
Jay Jones is a Norfolk Democrat and former delegate who sponsored the 2020 legislation. He’s somewhat surprised by Anderson’s campaign.
“This is the first time I’ve heard any complaints” about speed-camera operations, Jones said, noting he still gets emails to his political account about various issues. The 2020 bill limited the cameras to school and work zones, he said, “where you want people to slow down anyway.”
Plus, many police departments have struggled to reach full strength since the pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd. The cameras help bolster law enforcement, Jones said.
Is Anderson interpreting the law correctly, and does he have a legitimate case? Darryl Brown, a University of Virginia School of Law professor, said it’s possible, especially on the state claims.
“The plaintiff could well be correct about the violations they allege,” Brown said. “Although even if the city loses in this lawsuit, it ought to be able to revise the way it handles speeding violations and, with some new practices, continue to enforce the speeding law on the basis of speed camera videos.”
Brown said the federal lawsuit is a stretch because the Sixth Amendment applies to criminal offenses, not civil ones. Speed camera violations are the latter.
Why haven’t other attorneys complained about the issue? The law stipulating rules for speed cameras didn’t start yesterday. Anderson’s crusade is a lonely one, and rightly so.
The Washington Post recently reported streets in D.C. with speed cameras saw speeding drop sharply, citing city data. Easing up on the accelerator should be applauded.
If paying up makes speeders slow down, that’s all the better.
– Roger Chesley, Virginia Mercury columnist
I don’t feel sorry for people who speed — especially since the safety of schoolchildren and construction workers are at risk. Anderson’s arguments are novel ones, and they support people who don’t respect posted speed limits.
If paying up makes speeders slow down, that’s all the better.
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