When red lights equal green
Written by Lisa Renee Ward | | lward@toledofreepress.com“Laws are only words written on paper, words that change on society’s whim and are interpreted differently daily by politicians, lawyers, judges and policemen. Anyone who believes that all laws should always be obeyed would have made a fine slave catcher. Anyone who believes that all laws are applied equally, despite race, religion or economic status, is a fool.”
— John J. Miller in “And Hope to Die.”
On Feb. 9, Toledo City Council discussed immobilizing and impounding vehicles for unpaid red light/speeding photo enforcement. Here is some of what attendees said:
Lourdes Santiago from the law department said, “These two pieces of legislation simply authorize in one situation the immobilization of the vehicle as well as the impoundment of the vehicle and the other companion legislation is to authorize the impoundment of the vehicle.”
Councilman D. Michael Collins wanted the policy from the police department before voting on this: “Part in parcel of what we are doing in terms of collecting the outstanding fines and so forth goes to the economic circumstances; the policy goes to the quality of life circumstances for the City of Toledo.”
Councilwoman Lindsay Webb requested a committee hearing: “If we are going to step this thing up and we are going to be impounding vehicles which impacts peoples ability to get to their job, to get to their doctor’s appointments, I just want to make sure that council has a clear understanding and that the citizenry has a reasonable expectation of what to expect.”
It was said most cities don’t impound or immobilize until three to five tickets go unpaid; in Toledo it will be two.
Councilman Rob Ludeman said he was on council when this first passed. “The reason I supported it then was the safety factor.” He expressed concern over a future constitutional challenge.
Santiago said: “If the penalty can never be imposed because they can ignore it, at some point the behavior will continue.”
Ludeman said: “There are lots of people in this economy that are making decisions on what to pay and what not to pay, maybe a more prudent course would be to lower the fine.”
Councilman Adam Martinez said: “This kind of seems like a civil disobedience issue that all of us should be very aware of, in terms of my issue, is the lack of due process. I understand there is a process involved but it’s almost not worth the time to take a lawyer and go to the hearing with it.”
Councilman George Sarantou said: “Facts are, less people are running red lights because of these red light cameras. We have less tickets today which is part of the reason why the budget amount is so far off this year.
“We only have 44 percent compliance, what do you tell the people out there that have paid the fines, obeyed the law, sent their checks in; it’s a slap in the face to them.”
He thinks once boots are put on cars, “a lot of people will pay up.”
Councilman Mike Craig said: “If people are into us for two or three red light violations and they haven’t paid, the system is not working … maybe going without their car for a day or two and being inconvenienced, maybe then they’ll stop running red lights.”
Council President Wilma Brown said: “I’m voting for this because I think we need it and we need to stop making excuses for lawbreakers. People in Toledo think they have the right to run red lights and they have the right to kill people and I’m not going to give them that right.”
A committee meeting will take place at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 18. The proposal could be voted on by council as early as March 2. If this is passed by council, the Bell administration plans to do a public information campaign during the 30 days before it goes into law so people can pay before enforcement begins.
It was not said how this will be enforced on those who do not live in Toledo or how much of the more than $2.5 million owed to Toledo is from people with more than one ticket.
Lisa Renee Ward is a Toledo Free Press contributor and operator of the political blog Glass City Jungle.
