http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21004828957978/

Ft Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines might PULL THE PLUG ON THE RLC as losses mount!

2 cities reconsidering red light cameras

Today at 10:50 pm EDT
 

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Drivers in city after city have been complaining about them for months, and now some city leaders are considering removing red light cameras.

Both Fort Lauderdale and Pembroke Pines officials are thinking about pulling the plug on these cameras, as they feel they have cost them more than they are worth.

Many cities that agreed to buy and install the red light cameras were told they would make millions of dollars in revenue from tickets. In Fort Lauderdale, they were promised $3.2 million. City officials are now saying the numbers are nowhere near that, and the costs of fighting these citations in court are mounting for the city. "It's just a total disaster," said Broward Commissioner John Rodstrom. "Everything that could go wrong went wrong."

"The courts or, you know, the lawyers that they've hired are doing a pretty good job of beating the crap out of us," continued Rodstrom, "and it's not the revenue that everybody thought it was going to be."

Instead of making millions over the course of nearly a year of having these cameras inservice, the program has cost the Pembroke Pines $139,000. The city has since changed its contract with the company and even installed more cameras in the hopes of finally making some money.

"We hope that nobody runs a red light and then it's not about making money, it's about saving lives," said Pembroke Pines Mayor Frank Ortis. "There's no talk about getting rid of them at this point. They are here to stay."

Under the new terms, the company providing the cameras will now have to absorb some of the court costs the city has paid to fight continued court battles.

Other cities have said that instead of delivering dollars, the tickets from these cameras have tied up the court system. "There's just all kinds of problems," said Rodstrom. "You have the administrative problems. The lawyers that they've hired are doing a pretty good job beatin' the crap out of us, and it's not the revenue that everybody thought it was going to be."

It turns out these cases are hard for the city to win in court, as their constitutionality has been brought into question in an appellate court. "The way things used to be, if a police officer sees a violation, writes a ticket, then that's the way it's supposed to be," said Ted Hollander of the Ticket Clinic, "not a camera that isn't really sure that you're really the driver, from an angel where you can't really tell if you've gone through the light, giving tickets out. That's not the way that our constitution is set up."

Hollander said his law firm's success at beating the tickets is nearly perfect. "In Palm Beach and Broward County, we've probably handled around 600 cases, and we've lost two of the cases," he said.

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