Nashville: Statewide traffic-camera law passes House committee

Nashville: Statewide traffic-camera law passes House committee

NASHVILLE - Legislation imposing statewide standards on cities' use of traffic-enforcement cameras sped through the House Transportation Committee today on a voice vote.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Vince Dean, R-East Ridge, now advances to the House Finance Committee.

"It standardizes them statewide," Dean said. "It puts all camera programs under the same umbrella, everybody playing by the same rules.

Rep. Bill Harmon, D-Dunlap, a critic of the redlight and speeding cameras, contended the bill "has no teeth" because cities face no fines if they disregard standards such as requiring an independent traffic engineering study before setting up cameras. Currently, the companies that sell traffic cameras often conduct the studies.

But Dean said cities disobeying the law could be sued by unhappy citizens.

Standards in the bill are largely modeled on Chattanooga's program.

Later in the committee, a separate bill failed that required any citation arising from a traffic camera be delivered by police instead of sent through the mail.

Cities claimed the bill, which would have required the camera to take a photo of drivers as well as car tags, would make the use of photo-enforcement impractical.