The cameras, operated by Optotraffic LLC since Oct. 2012, are estimated to have generated more than 10,000 tickets and $1 million in revenue for the village of about 2,200 people.
Camera enforcement has been spreading nationally. Supporters say cameras stretch police resources and make communities safer. Opponents charge that they are revenue raisers that violate constitutional rights.
There have been a string of rulings by judges in Ohio against traffic cameras, including one in Hamilton County involving the village of Elmwood Place. The Ohio Supreme Court is considering a case out of Toledo that could determine the fate of automated speeding and red-light enforcement.
The cities of Middletown and Hamilton both have automated traffic enforcement systems, but officials in those cities say their hearing processes are very different and strive to assure motorists are treated fairly.
Currently, 13 Middletown intersections are equipped with red-light cameras that ticket drivers who run stop lights at those intersections. The cameras are not used to monitor speed.
Red-flex owns and operates the cameras in Middletown. The civil citations are $100, and 7,452 were issued in 2013. Middletown receives 55 percent of the payment.
Maj. Mark Hoffman said when the program was developed in 2005, due process aspects were put into place. All citations are viewed and approved by a police officer before they are issued, and a municipal court magistrate presides over the administrative hearing.
“The law director here is pretty conservative,” Hoffman said. “There has to be an opportunity for due process and that means true due process.”
The Hamilton Police Department employed a speed-enforcement van in April 2010. The van is placed at locations throughout the city, usually around schools and parks where speed is a problem, according to Sgt Ed Buns.
In the past 13 months, 3,800 tickets have been issued with 70 percent of revenues going to Hamilton’s general fund.
Buns said the speed-camera van is about slowing people down, not about making money.
A Hamilton officer also reviews the citations and issues them. Hearings are held in Hamilton City Council chambers by the same magistrate that presides over hearings in Middletown.
“I want to make sure everyone is treated fairly,” Buns said. “I encourage people with questions to schedule a hearing.”
Attorneys in the New Miami lawsuit filed last month on behalf of two Butler County residents and two Cincinnati residents argued the village did not properly give people due process. They maintain hearings are conducted before an administrator appointed by the police chief and hearsay evidence is allowed without an opportunity for questioning.
But New Miami’s attorneys said due process in an administrative hearing is not the same as what is required in criminal or civil proceedings.
Sage agreed with the plaintiffs, not taking issue with the cameras themselves, but with the administrative hearing process.
“They (drivers) are almost presumed guilty before found guilty,” Sage said.
The judge also gave the lawsuit class-action status, meaning all who have received tickets are included. Attorney Josh Engel said after the appeal process is completed, and if Sage orders New Miami to pay back the $1 million, then people will get a notice.
Lara Rodeffer, of Liberty Twp., paid the $315 filing fee at the Butler County Clerk of Court office to appeal her ticket from the village in court last year. Rodeffer won her appeal after New Miami failed to file a transcript of her administrative hearing with the court. She argued New Miami’s cameras are nothing more than a money-making scheme.
Judge Charles Pater wrote in his ruling that “the Village of New Miami failed to file a transcript of the hearing because it is unable to do so. Apparently all, or virtually all, of the proceedings were not recorded.”
Rodeffer said she was happy to learn of Sage’s ruling, noting 40 people attended the administrative hearing in New Miami along with her, and the only ones who got a break were those with multiple tickets who were allowed to pay just one fine.
“They (the hearing administrator and police) really couldn’t answer any questions about anything,” she said. “It was totally unfair and very frustrating.”
But Rodeffer said the police officer she asked after the hearing about an appeal was more than happy tell her it would mean a $315 filing fee.
“Then the paper they gave me said I had to appeal in Hamilton County,” Rodeffer said. After phone calls back and forth, as well as visits to the village office, Rodeffer said she was finally told it was a mistake — they meant Butler County.
New Miami Police Chief Kenneth Cheek referred questions to the village’s attorneys on Wednesday. Neither the village attorneys nor Mayor Patti Hanes could be reached for comment.
The lunch crowd at Red’s Hamburgers in New Miami had no love lost for the speed cameras.
“I’m surprised one of the good old boys around here haven’t pulled them out with a chain and dumped them in the river by now,” said resident Tonya Newton.
Newton said she wonders where all the money the cameras generated has been spent.
“It’s not about speed, it about (money),” Newton said.
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