Alabama’s love-hate relationship with red-light cameras: A closer look

Katherine Smith not only brought joy and happiness to those she met, but she was also a queen.

Smith was a Mardi Gras queen crowned in 2017 by the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association . Her sudden death at age 37 has left the organization and her close friends devastated, according to Marcus Catchings, public relations officer with MAMGA.

"Katherine represented such a quality person, and a quality Mobilian," said Catchings about Smith, killed on Sept. 8 after a red-light runner slammed into her vehicle at the busy intersection of Airport Boulevard and McGregor Avenue.

In the aftermath of the crash, Mobile is reviving a years-long debate over red-light cameras. That debate is likely to continue after a two-day police "Red Light Blitz" this past week resulted in 415 citations and warnings in two days.

But in Alabama, the rollout of red-light camera technology has been uneven. Few cities have them. One city removed them. Birmingham and Huntsville do not have them, and prospects appear slim that the technology is coming to either city soon.

In Mobile, state lawmakers are likely to oppose them despite calls from city officials for them.

Nonetheless, the debate over red-light cameras – now, well over a decade old since Montgomery first installed them – isn't fading anytime soon.

"This has been discussed for years and years," said James Barber, the city of Mobile's chief of staff and former police chief. "To me, having a public safety background, anything that improves the safety of the public, that's government functioning as government should."

Mobile debate The prospects of installing red light cameras in Mobile emerged during last week's council meeting amid a growing concern over red-light runners punctuated by the heartbreak over Smith's death.

It's the second time in two years that Mobile officials have weighed in on the issue. In 2022, the council voted on a resolution urging the Legislature to allow the city to install cameras at intersections to primarily stop drivers from running red lights. The resolution got a mixed reception in Montgomery and went nowhere.

"We looked at doing something with respect to cameras and traffic lights several years ago," said Councilman Joel Daves. "The problem, in my mind, has gotten successively worse."

Daves said there were over 800 incidences of red-light citations this year, and more than 1,100 last year.

"And that's where the police seem to be," he said. "So that actual number of people running red lights is far higher. The number of injuries and deaths has increased. How much easier would it be to have cameras at the red lights so we wouldn't have to divert police officers to sit there at their patrol cars at particular intersections?"

Other council members agreed that it's time to give the cameras a try, whether it's to curtail speeding or to monitor illegal trash dumping. The council is likely to discuss the issue during a 1 p.m. Public Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday.

"I believe cameras are the solution, especially at dump sites," Council President C.J. Small said.

State lawmakers remain skeptics. Rep. Shane Stringer, R-Citronelle, who is a former law enforcement officer and is chair of the Mobile County legislative delegation, said the cameras often benefit the third-party, private vendors who install and operate them. Those third parties, he said, receive a cut of the tickets that are issued to red light scofflaws.

In addition, he said the technology can be faulty and lead to inaccuracies.

"Whenever the redlight catches the car, it's the car owner who gets the ticket in the mail," Stringer said. "If you borrow the car and run a redlight ... the next thing you know, I get the ticket, but I didn't violate the law. As a police officer, when I pull someone over, I ticket the violator in the car."

City versus state The conflict between city officials and state lawmakers isn't just a Mobile concern. Similar friction exists in Birmingham, where City Councilor Clinton Woods has lobbied for at least six years to get cameras installed to address speeding along Alabama State Route 75, and within school zones.

"For me, it's a responsiveness issue to my constituency," Woods said. "I have roads throughout my community that do turn into speedways. Having that 24/7 enforcement would be helpful. A lot of data would also be gleaned."

Democratic and Republican lawmakers are skeptical that cameras will result with improved public safety.

Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, and Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, both said they have concerns about the technology taking wrongful images of people who might be ticketed for running a redlight when, in fact, they were not the actual violator.

"The question becomes, when does a ticket kick in?" said Givan, who calls the issue a "toss up" for her in that she sees the benefits but also has concerns. "When I pull up to the stop sign, and then roll up and instead of immediately stopping, does that qualify me for not making a full stop and will I be penalized? That would be one of the biggest questions we have."

Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Birmingham, said he would only be supportive of redlight cameras if a local law enforcement agency is in charge of calibrating them.

"There is data out there that shows they are beneficial for public safety," Treadaway said.

Split issue Studies appear split over the matter. A 2017 study of three large Texas cities over a 12-year period involving hundreds of thousands of accidents resulted in no evidence that red light cameras improved public safety. The study's authors argued that the presence of the cameras at red lights could increase the number of rear-end collisions.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) sees the benefit in the cameras . According to their analysis, cameras reduce the fatal red light running crash rates in large cities by 21%, and that the rate of all types of fatal crashes at signalized intersections decreased by 14%.

The cameras are effective in deterring a crime that affects thousands of people nationally, according to the IIHS. In 2022, 1,149 people were killed in crashes involving red light running. A whopping 107,000 people – in the U.S. were injured by a red-light runner, according to IIHS statistics.

Alabama is one of 24 states that has a city with a red-light camera program. Most of the largest cities in the U.S. have some kind of red-light surveillance program for police, and the technology was first rolled out by New York City in 1992.

In Alabama, the only cities with red light cameras are Montgomery, Center Point , Midfield, Phenix City, Selma, and Tuscaloosa. Six states, including Mississippi and Texas, outright ban red light and speed cameras at intersections.

Alabama state law does not address the cameras, and the issue is left up to city councils and the local legislative delegations to decide.

The Alabama Department of Transportation has a 50-page guide for cities to follow and consider before pursuing red light cameras. Released in 2015, the guide assists local governments that "are required to submit a detailed application for red light cameras at specific intersections," according to ALDOT spokesperson Amanda Deem.

"If the data is showing a high incident of wrecks and fatalities (at a specific site), you notify ALDOT and make sure studies are done," said Treadaway, who favors more law enforcement assigned to traffic patrols rather than using cameras to provide enforcement. "On the law enforcement side, you need to deploy resources to it."

There have been efforts to ban the cameras in Alabama, but bills doing so have not advanced through the legislative process.

The Alabama State Supreme Court has taken the side of cities . In 2022, in a 6-1 ruling, t he Supreme Court sided with the City of Montgomery allowing them to continue using the redlight cameras that were first allowed through a 2007 ordinance and embraced by the Montgomery legislative delegation in 2008.

Positives, negatives

Montgomery police, over the years, have said the redlight cameras are effective in reducing crashes. The city, on its website , says the cameras have helped "decrease incidents of collisions at intersections where cameras are installed by more than 50 percent." In one location not specified on the city's website, the decrease in crashes was more than 80 percent.

In Montgomery, drivers who are photographed running red lights receive a $60 citation. The city explains how the program works:

The first image captured provides a view of the vehicle before crossing over the white stop line and provides a view of the traffic light that is red.

A second image will show that the vehicle has continued through the intersection while the traffic light is red.

A third image is then analyzed to show an up-close image of the license plate and the violator's vehicle.

Montgomery police, and not a third-party, review all citation images and verify violations. The camera system, according to the city, operates only when the traffic light is red – "capturing images of actual violations."

"As the first municipality in the state to implement traffic cameras, we're now the 6th safest driving city in the U.S.," the city claims on its website.

In Opelika, city officials said the cameras were not worth the headache. The city, in 2018, removed the cameras at all five locations they were at in the city following the expiration of a five-year contract with American Traffic Solutions (ATS, now Verra Mobility out of Mesa, Ariz.).

"We thought red light cameras would improve traffic safety at our busiest intersections and that's what motivated us to do this," Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller said. "Ultimately, we were not convinced that intersection safety was improved enough to justify keeping them. They were also very unpopular with our citizens."

Fuller said the city was accused of installing them to raise revenue from traffic citations. He said that was "simply not the case."

"In fact, I cannot tell you how much money was generated with these cameras," Fuller said. "Regardless, it was always about making intersections safer for our motorists."

Effective action

Mobile council member Daves said he's aware of the criticism about the cameras, but notes that Montgomery and other cities in Alabama and elsewhere throughout the country are able to operate them without problems.

In 2023, there were 337 U.S. communities operating red light safety camera programs, according to media sources and other public information tracked by IIHS.

"I think there is a way that addresses the legitimate concerns some folks have about these (cameras)," Daves said. "I don't think anyone can deny that we have an epidemic of people running red lights. It gets worse every year. No municipality has the resources to have a police officer at an intersection and to be there 24/7."

He added, "Will we take effective action or will continue to have people who run red lights and kill or injure people?"

Catchings, who was close friends with Smith, said he supports any public effort that could lead to preventing a similar tragedy from happening.

The driver who struck Smith's vehicle – 38-year-old Spencer Strickland – faces a manslaughter charge and is under investigation for possible DUI. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 14.

"It would be something good, and hopefully prevent anyone from feeling the pain and anguish we are still feeling in this present point in time," Catchings said.