A Broward County judge has dismissed a red-light camera ticket.
STUART, Fla. (CBS12) — A Broward County judge has dismissed a red-light camera ticket, ruling that the state law used to issue the citation improperly shifts the burden of proof onto vehicle owners.
In a 21-page order signed March 3, Judge Steven P. DeLuca granted a defendant’s motion to dismiss a photo-enforced traffic citation issued under Florida’s red-light camera law.
The case involved a Sunrise red-light camera citation issued to a registered vehicle owner after automated cameras captured a vehicle entering an intersection against a red signal. The defendant argued the statute unconstitutionally requires the registered owner to prove they were not driving — instead of requiring the government to prove who was behind the wheel.
Judge DeLuca agreed.
In the order, the court found that red-light camera cases, although labeled as civil infractions, function as “quasi-criminal” proceedings because they can result in monetary penalties, a formal finding of guilt, and consequences tied to a driver’s record.
Under Florida Statute 316.0083, once a camera captures a violation, the registered owner is presumed responsible unless they submit an affidavit identifying another driver. The court ruled that the framework improperly shifts the burden of proof away from the state.
Because traffic infractions that move to county court must be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge wrote that the statute’s presumption violates constitutional due process protections.
As a result, the citation in this case was formally dismissed.
Joel Mumford is an attorney with The Ticket Clinic. He said if the case is quasi criminal, which means almost criminal or criminal-like, the state has to follow procedural due process.
"The state or the agencies that issue the tickets, it's their burden to prove all the elements of the crime beyond and to the extent of each and every reasonable doubt. And the first element, which should be, who's driving the car," Mumford said. "The statute in Florida presumes that the registered owner is the driver of the car."
Mumford said even though the court order only applies in Broward County, it could open the door for challenges in other parts of the state, meaning other counties across the state following suit.
"What could probably happen is they the court could then get an appeal, and then if it goes up to the district court of appeal level and then make a decision on it, depending on what that says, that could then be applied to the entire state, if there's no similar appellate cases throughout the state. So that could make it statewide," he said.
Drivers in Boynton Beach want to see the red-light cameras gone.
Fifteen red-light camera systems are already running at seven intersections in Boynton Beach alone. Congress Avenue and Gateway Boulevard is just one of them.
"I've been ticketed here twice, and it's ridiculous because they it's just not fair," one driver said who didn't want to be identified. The person that does the determination when you ran the light, it's just a random. Whoever they want to pick, pick you to say, okay, you're gonna pay the ticket."
That driver had to pay his $158 dollar ticket but he's hopeful Palm Beach County can soon follow suit. He wants red light cameras gone, so future violations could be thrown out.
"I think they need to outlaw it and get rid of it," he said.
Advocacy group StopTheCams, which has long opposed automated traffic enforcement, called the ruling a major victory. In a press release, the group said the decision confirms what critics have argued for years — that red-light camera laws punish vehicle owners without requiring proof they committed the violation.
Supporters of red-light cameras argue the systems improve safety by deterring dangerous driving at intersections. Florida’s red-light camera law, known as the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act, allows local governments to use automated enforcement systems.
It remains unclear whether the ruling will be appealed or how broadly it could affect similar cases statewide. For now, the decision applies to this specific case in Broward County, but legal observers say it could fuel renewed challenges to Florida’s red-light camera enforcement system.
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After reading the 21 page order, I do tend to agree with the judge
The judge frames the red light camera scheme as a revenue generating scheme, not a public safety measure.
Additionally, "A distinctive feature of the statutory scheme is its assignment of guilt to the registered owner rather than the driver of the vehicle". and "If there are multiple registered owners, the citation is issued to the 'first' registered 'owner'". and the person whom the citation was issued to must sign an affidavit that includes the name, address, dob, of the person who was actually driving. The judge says this "...abandon(s) centuries time honored protections of hearsay as substantive evidence.".
"It is a foundational rule of constitutional due process that the government must prove every fact necessary to constitute an offense beyond a reasonable doubt before a person may be adjudicated guilty of a crime".
"Although nominally civil, traffic infraction proceedings retain every substantive hallmark of criminal prosecution..." "under Feiock, such proceedings are sufficiently criminal in form and function to invoke the full protections of due process..." - that's probably the core of the reasoning here.
"Section 316.074(1) provides in relevant part that "The driver of any vehicle shall obey..."" - the driver, not the registered owner.
I highly recommend reading the order. It's easy to follow and aligns with my understanding of the law within the USA.
By hamdingers 2026-03-0920:3925 reply California's new speed camera pilot (AB 645) explicitly solves for this.
Tickets issued by these cameras are civil penalties issued to the owner of the vehicle, like parking tickets, rather than a criminal moving violation. This means the tickets are just as constitutional as parking tickets. It also means penalties are limited to fines and can't impact your driving privilege or insurance.
Hopefully other states can follow this pattern. Consistent, low-impact enforcement is better at preventing unwanted behavior than the rare and severe but also capricious enforcement performed by human police.
Consistent, low-impact enforcement is better at preventing unwanted behavior than the rare and severe but also capricious enforcement performed by human police.
It can also give permission for unwanted behavior. Cf. the Haifa study, where the rate of late pickups increased when daycares added a fine. One explanation is the fine turned a complex moral obligation into an ordinary financial transaction.
By jaredklewis 2026-03-0921:447 reply The Haifa daycare study can’t be used to extrapolate much.
They fined parents (IIRC) ~$3 per late pickup. Rerun the study with a $300 fine and let’s see how it pans out. It’s an interesting finding, but that then people take it to mean that fines don’t work (no matter their size) is insane.
I worked in childcare about 20 years ago, and we charged $1 per minute late.
We had to keep two staff there, and they would split the fine.
Many times we got stiffed.
Edit: for reference, our fee was about $14/day to keep the kid, so it was a pretty stiff penalty.
Well, If the staff got stiffed on the fee "many times", and the parents were allowed to bring their kid back.. the place didn't charge $1 per minute late. They just bluffed and got called on it.
(apologies for the immediate edit, changed my wording)
By sejje 2026-03-1019:00 In some cases they weren't allowed back, but it was rare. Most people paid up when the director got involved.
By brigandish 2026-03-102:301 reply > Many times we got stiffed.
I understand that you could not keep the child till you were paid (kidnapping and ransom shouldn't be a business plan!), but you could refuse them future service until they paid.
By sejje 2026-03-1019:01 I couldn't, as a staffer--but yes, the organization could, and they did a couple of times that I know of.
One person had a $180 fine (half of that was mine) and they were asked not to come back when they refused to pay it.
Smaller amounts were ignored.
By GuestFAUniverse 2026-03-1013:15 How's that a "penalty"? It's more of a proper invoice for the costs that arised?!
I had a situation twice were I was late. Didn't have to pay, but would have without hesitation. Doesn't matter the cause.
Three hundred dollars per hour? How is that acceptable? Certainly there's some sort of maximum or grace period?
By rkangel 2026-03-1013:08 The nursery has clear times that it is "open". I must drop off my child between A and B O'clock in the morning, and I must collect them between X and Y O'clock in the afternoon. Like a shop - they are allowed to have opening hours.
The issue is that they can't just close when they want if there's a child still there. So they have to have some way of enforcing these rules on parents. A "per minute" fine seems appropriate, so that it's more the later you are. And you need the fine to be enough that it is punitive enough, when considered against the income of your parents. Otherwise it provides no incentive. Ours is not $300 (more like $30), but it seems fair.
By sidewndr46 2026-03-1012:41 That's largely in line with unplanned or off-hours work for many professionals in the area of a city. If you want for example, plumbing done after normal business hours $300 per hour is a typical rate. In at least one case I paid $50 just to get a supply shop to open their doors after hours to get the needed parts to repair my own home.
By jms703 2026-03-1017:01 It sounds like a great policy. Good news is that you can choose to be on time or pay the penalty or choose another provider who hasn't decided to implement this...yet.
I'm shocked by your question. I honestly would like to hear why you think this should not be acceptable. Why should they continue working overtime and cut into their own personal/family time because of the parent's failure?
By ImPostingOnHN 2026-03-106:23 How much does it cost to keep the facility open for 1 minute? Power, staff, etc.
And then there's the challenge of keeping people on staff at all when parents consistently make the staff work late.
Beyond that, it seems like a good way to achieve the objective of convincing parents to not offload externalities onto others by being late.
By knorker 2026-03-109:14 How is being late acceptable?
Let's say you have a job interview. You're 5min late, so they either don't hire you, or the receptionist says the interviewer is now not available. Are you now due the salary, because you being this late 5min cost you a lot of money?
If you in a private contract reject the terms of paying $5 per minute late, well then the other party now knows you plan to be late a lot, so they'll be glad if you take your business elsewhere.
Keeping people from being able to go home after their workday, effectively forced overtime, is incredibly disrespectful. And even if "it's not your fault", you are the only one that could have prevented it. So incentives should be in place that you don't. $5 per minute sounds fair.
If you force me to stay late for a full hour you'd BETTER pay me triple digits. But in this case the $300 for an hour may have to be shared among several people.
By knorker 2026-03-1013:24 It's too late to edit my other comment, but it's shocking to me how the people downvoting that comment can have such a lack of empathy and respect for people working in daycare.
I can't understand how one can treat people like servants, forcing them into unpaid overtime, to wait until I'm good and ready to show up. And to be upset and call it "unacceptable" to compensate people when you mistreat them.
By jdjfnfndn 2026-03-109:51 [dead]
By saltyoldman 2026-03-104:231 reply The problem with any and all fees is that they go up as soon as the business notices simple patterns.
By no-name-here 2026-03-104:361 reply How is that a problem with “all fees” if the explicit intention is to limit a behavior that most people say we should somehow reduce?
By jakobobobo 2026-03-0922:391 reply A $3 fine is a good portion of someone's disposable income and a $300 fine is not much of someone else's.. A civil penalty of that nature almost guarantees some part of the population will view it like the $3 fee.
This is exactly why license points (leading to suspension) are better than fines.
If the ticketing decision made by an automated camera system is deemed acceptable when issuing mere fines akin to parking tickets, but deemed unacceptable when issuing other penalties (which don't have this wealth inequity issue we are discussing now, at least not exclusively), that's effectively a poor tax.
By Terr_ 2026-03-103:53 More broadly, I think it's important to distinguish (more than we do) what aspect of justice a fine is supposed to be for, particularly between restorative versus punitive. The first is what it costs to fix measurable damage-done, the second is what we need to ensure the person cares to change their behavior.
By cestith 2026-03-1015:50 This is exactly why in some countries traffic fines are proportional to income.
By efitz 2026-03-103:52 The government operating automatic camera citation systems, almost never is interested in improving safety or even minimizing undesirable behavior- often the placement of such cameras is done to maximize revenue (as when red light cameras are placed at long-cycle-time intersections vs intersections with a history of accidents). And it’s been documented that some cities have reduced yellow light times (which almost always leads to more citations) rather than increasing yellow light times (which usually leads to fewer people running the yellow, because people are less likely to take a chance after the light has been yellow a long time).
There’s a lot of compelling evidence that these systems are just revenue machines.
By unselect5917 2026-03-101:294 reply I don't like paltry sums like this. $300 is a significant financial impact to someone who's barely making ends meet, and absolutely nothing at all to a billionaire. "If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exists for the poor."
Make it a tiny % of net worth, with a modest minimum and watch EVERYONE obey. Or at least something meaningful to everyone, or don't make it a fine. Use some other carrot or stick.
By dragonwriter 2026-03-106:481 reply > I don't like paltry sums like this. $300 is a significant financial impact to someone who's barely making ends meet, and absolutely nothing at all to a billionaire.
One thing about daycares is that you will essentially never find "someone who's barely making ends meet" and "a billionaire" with kids at the same daycare, so a surcharge for out-of-normal-expectations service does not need to be designed to address both cases.
(In fact, you'll probably not find a billionaire with kids at any daycare, their hired childcare workers won't be shared with other people, and will probably be adequately compensated up front in a way which anticipates a fair degree of schedule variability.)
OTOH, with red light cameras, you also don't need to scale the fine to work with both, because the entire purpose is to bind the lower classes while exempting the upper from any substantial burden. (The least cynical explanation is that it is to discourage behavior which might incur liability grossly exceeding the mandatory level of insurance company by those least able to cover the cost of that liability, thereby avoiding uncompensated harms, but the realistic explanation is...not so generous.)
> In fact, you'll probably not find a billionaire with kids at any daycare
I grew up with the children of a multi-billionaire. His kids went to the same daycare as I did, and it wasn’t particularly fancy.
Some ultra-wealthy people live fairly normal-looking lives.
By alsetmusic 2026-03-1017:16 Something I heard from someone who worked at the Palo Alto Apple Store two decades ago:
Steve Jobs's kids drew on an eMac with markers or something. He made them make an appoint for the store's Genius Bar and wait in line to have it looked at like everyone else. I don't know anything about how the staff tried to clean it or the outcome.
X% of net worth is still a bigger deal to someone with a net worth of $20 than to someone with a net worth of $20M, even though the latter may get some sticker shock. And it's possible (if rare) to have a reasonably middle-class lifestyle and an actually negative net worth. Presumably you would not make it possible to pay off student loans by repeatedly violating a red light, although it would be very funny.
By dhosek 2026-03-108:30 You’d be surprised at the numbers of people living middle-class lifestyles with negative net worth. Credit card debt, car loans (with a too-small down payment, a car purchase can easily cause one’s net worth to decline the second you take delivery on the car), underwater mortgages, not to mention student loans.
> Presumably you would not make it possible to pay off student loans by repeatedly violating a red light
I lack the context and knowledge to understand how this would work, but I am curious (enough to ask but not enough to google it, admittedly).
By fc417fc802 2026-03-107:271 reply The joke being that if your net worth is negative the fine will be negative.
By rkomorn 2026-03-108:52 Man, I missed that by a mile. Thanks. :D
By 5o1ecist 2026-03-106:37 [dead]
By CWuestefeld 2026-03-102:001 reply But that makes wildly different incentives to enforce, depending on the target. We all know this stuff is all about revenue enhancement, and in that capacity, the targets will become the whales.
Automated enforcement where fines are anchored to the KBB value of the car is The Way
Enlightenment and utopia across that simple bridge
Or how about the curb weight of the car? Higher mass means you're doing a lot more damage in an accident. People might think twice about buying an F250 for their grocery getter.
By estearum 2026-03-1012:30 I'm fine with that as the tax basis but for penalties, this doesn't actually track with what's needed to produce deterrent at every income level
By unselect5917 2026-03-103:282 reply Devil's advocate: billionaire driving a beater (I'm not a billionaire, but I drive a beater)
By lazyasciiart 2026-03-104:26 Good for them. I’m willing to let them off easy to incentivize lower cost cars in general.
By estearum 2026-03-1012:31 I am 100% fine with them "sneaking under the radar." Own goal.
By wetpaws 2026-03-1018:44 [dead]
By gambiting 2026-03-0922:30 I mean as a much greater "study", look at the UK - government introduced fines for parents of kids missing school, and the rate of absenced increased - because parents see it more as a cost that you just have to pay to go on holiday during school year.
I get your point, but I doubt the fine could have been ethically higher. Domino's drivers killed dozens of people in speed-related accidents before they ended their 30-minute guarantee.
I don't think our society is ready for the combination of automatic enforcement and truly punitive penalties. We readily demonize the accused; just having your mugshot taken can end your employability. Yet many of us break laws daily -- speeding, jaywalking, watering the lawn during the day, even plugging in a microwave oven without a building permit in some jurisdictions -- and society still works because we don't expect much enforcement. We are heading toward a future where everyone will have marks on their permanent record, but today our society tut-tuts, or much worse, at anyone who does.
By zer00eyz 2026-03-100:56 https://thehustle.co/originals/the-failure-of-the-dominos-30...
"Domino’s confirmed it knew of 20 people who died in crashes involving its drivers in 1988 (the National Safe Workplace Institute would later claim Domino’s delivery drivers had about the same death rate as miners, who had a fatality rate of ~35 per 100k)."
For that same period, the death rate per 100k of young drivers was 46 per 100k https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00044682.htm
And to compare truck drivers 27 per 100k: https://www.malmanlaw.com/malman-law-injury-blog/is-being-a-...
Is this a dominos problem, or a young drivers problem or...
By linkregister 2026-03-101:071 reply It is understandable that someone who only lived in the United States or a low-enforcement place would have this world view. I'm more sanguine about the trajectory of our society.
Australia, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, etc, have well-enforced traffic laws. Speeding is the exception rather than the rule, unlike the United States, where one can expect the flow of traffic to be 10-20 miles per hour over the posted limit. Yet these societies don't suffer from an excess of enforcement or consequences in other areas. For example, it is legal to walk around in public with a bottle of beer in virtually all of Europe.
What we have seen in the United States is a reduction of many hardly-enforced laws. Jaywalking and minor drug possession have been decriminalized in several US states. This is due to voter interest. It will continue to be up to the public to decide what do to when enforcement can catch up to excessive laws.
In the Netherlands fines are insane. If you pick up your garbage bin two hours too late from the street corner, you pay 210 euros. On the other side, if you sell drugs to kids and have a weapon, nobody touches you.
Yes, you can sometimes walk around legally with a beer bottle here.
By linkregister 2026-03-103:13 That must depend on the town. I saw people hanging their trash bags on the trash poles several days early, no consequences.
By jaredklewis 2026-03-0923:591 reply I don't think you did get my point (my fault perhaps), as my only point is that if you take away from the Haifa study that fines will automatically increase the prevalence the targeted behavior in all situations, that's an insane conclusion to draw. There are lots of variables at play: the size of the fine, how consistently and strictly it is enforced, the ability of the finer to collect the fine, the social context, and so on. The Haifa study examines none of these. It does does highlight an interesting phenomenon, but without further studies that control for these variables, I don't think we can just blindly assume that the outcome in the Haifa day cares will apply to all situations where a fine is levied.
I see all the time on the Internet (and even IRL once) people make claims like, "oh, carbon taxes will just increase CO2 output, you know like in that Israeli daycare study." Drives me nuts.
Are fines the best possible solution to this particularly traffic problem? I have no idea. I'm not an expert in this area. But I am highly confident that whatever relation it has to the Haifa daycare study is so incredibly tenuous that it is not worth mentioning.
By sowbug 2026-03-100:18 We might be talking past each other. Call Haifa a parable, if you will. I understand why you find fault with the study, but I invoked it to call out (quoting myself) that a fine can also give permission for unwanted behavior. That point adds to yours and doesn't contradict it.
The reason I said anything in the first place is that I object to automatically administered punishment. Either separately can be OK. Automatically administered? No problem, that's called a tax (including use taxes like tolls). Punishment? Then we'd better have due process, and yeah, it's going to be expensive and labor-intensive to administer, but that's critical in a free country. That's why I called out the "is better than" quote. I think it's strictly worse.
By hamdingers 2026-03-0921:332 reply Sure. Then the bill requires that all those fines you pay go towards street calming infrastructure, eventually making it physically impossible (or at least very uncomfortable) for you to continue speeding.
Kind of like if enough parents paid the late pickup fee, eventually the daycare could afford a van for dropoffs.
By senordevnyc 2026-03-0922:222 reply It seems like this rarely happens. The fines become another stream of income, and reliance on that income kills any incentive to fully eliminate the behavior the fines are ostensibly meant to discourage.
By underlipton 2026-03-101:32 Random thought: this also accurately describes the financialization of home ownership. It was supposed to provide stability in shelter, and instead created a market that's completely unaffordable to the prime home-buying generations, in favor of protecting those who've come to depend on unconscionable valuations.
No one, gun to their head and hand on a Bible, should defend a status quo where the only way to afford a median house is to have twice the median income.
By hamdingers 2026-03-0922:33 Given the many restrictions on how the income can be used in this bill, I find it unlikely that will apply here. Feel free to check back in at the end of the pilot.
By underlipton 2026-03-101:14 There are multiple well-researched and practical interventions that can be done to make driving safer for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Implementation in the US is regularly scuttled by insane self-styled experts who "audacity" their way to public trust and influence, inexplicably.
By Terr_ 2026-03-103:57 I've seen quite a few roundabout projects over the years that seemed to work out well... Although I really detest any that have multiple concentric lanes.
I grew up in Fremont, CA, which pioneered the use of red-light cameras and terrible red-light camera practices (e.g. shortening yellow light times to increase revenue and giving a cut of the fines to the companies installing cameras). I hated cameras, the idea of speed cameras felt like big brother, and the basic principal of attributing a violation to a car and not a person (and thus requiring a person to rat out the driver) felt like a huge civil rights issue.
I then moved to Amsterdam and became the biggest fan of continuous, always-on ANPR speed cameras. On some freeways, your car is recorded at certain checkpoints and EVERYONE driving over the speed limit ALWAYS gets a fine.
Why? Because they are properly implemented (only high-risk areas), very well communicated (tons of signage), consistently applied (no crying your way out of a ticket, no racial profiling), purpose targeted (you get a speeding ticket, not a bunch of other fines at the whim of a cop), and correctly incentivized (ticket revenue does not immediately go to the local police or city).
The best thing about the average speed cameras is that between the checkpoints all cars drive at almost exactly the same speed. No one trying to overtake, just 5 lanes of traffic at 1km/h below the speed limit
By cestith 2026-03-1016:01 So the flow of traffic is actually better overall, rather than bunching up in one or two lanes while the fastest of the fast lane blows by?
By Gibbon1 2026-03-1020:25 I don't have a phrase to describe this concept. But it's when we blame one thing for a problem caused by another. Because placing the blame where is belongs is inconvenient.
You create a transport system where you're mixing incompatible modes of transport and carnage is what you get. What I see is instead of placing the blame on that everyone wants to place the blame on someone anyone else based on whatever moral anxiety they have.
Consider some people are drunks, you create a system where they have to drive you get drunk drivers. Don't want a bar walking distance from your quiet suburban neighborhood, again drunk drivers. Zoning that separates businesses and stores from low density housing. Driving, accidents. Mix pedestrian, bicycle, bus and car traffic, you get carnage.
No one really wants to blame the system and spend money to fix it. So blaming other individuals is what we do.
As the great patio11 said:
> Raise the prices. Then raise the prices. Then when you're done with that, raise the prices.
Sure. Do it as an increasing-upon-recurrence, two part fee though.
1st offence = base fee
2nd offence = base fee + minimal % of wealth fee
3rd offence = base fee + higher % of wealth fee
offences thereafter = goto 3rd offence until some breaking point condition like gaol/jail.
Otherwise the rich will happily pay to do whatever the hell they want.
By gus_massa 2026-03-1017:37 I prefer an exponential grow, it simplifies the calculations a lot and even Elon is only a few exponents order away from us.
By buzzerbetrayed 2026-03-102:002 reply How about you prove your claim by providing some evidence that the richer you are the more speeding tickets you get. Otherwise you're solving for a problem that doesn’t exist.
By no-name-here 2026-03-105:221 reply I read the grandparent comment's point as being about suggesting %-based fines.
> prove your claim by providing some evidence that the richer you are the more speeding tickets you get.
How/where did the grandparent comment claim that the rich get more speeding tickets? Even if the rich speed at a lower rate, would that make %-based fines a negative improvement?
> a problem that doesn’t exist
My assumption was the speeding is a problem no matter whether rich or poor, and that both exist. Is there disagreement there?
Instead, I think their point was that even a $100 fine for a poor person may impact their ability to pay for groceries, childcare, etc, whereas for someone who has $10 million, etc., even a $1,000 fine will not impact their ability to pay for groceries, childcare, etc as they still have $9,999,000.
By cindyllm 2026-03-105:26 [dead]
By JasonADrury 2026-03-106:49 Expensive cars tend to accelerate faster, and it can be vastly harder to feel the speed. It would be unsurprising if up until some limit there was a correlation between wealth and the frequency of getting speeding tickets.
By Spooky23 2026-03-0923:52 And then when you do that, get thrown out of office.
> One explanation is the fine turned a complex moral obligation into an ordinary financial transaction.
Income proportional fines solve the problem. The fine should be a deterrent, but not create crippling debt. That is impossible without taking into account the income of the infractor.
Sounds like a great reason to keep all of your income in a corporation in a state with favorable privacy laws and then have very little on paper.
Tax evasion always looks like a good idea until a non-corrupt goverment gets elected and the tax office goes after you.
By 15155 2026-03-1016:48 This isn't legally "tax evasion", it's well-established law: corporations have some degree of personhood, and as a corporate officer, I am allowed to disburse payments to those in my employ as I deem fit. Individual states have very little authority to look into foreign (other state) corporations.
Good luck contending with stare decisis and all of the implied interstate commerce issues to try and prevent this.
By ExoticPearTree 2026-03-106:03 > It can also give permission for unwanted behavior. Cf. the Haifa study, where the rate of late pickups increased when daycares added a fine. One explanation is the fine turned a complex moral obligation into an ordinary financial transaction.
You know what they say: a fine makes something legal for an amount of money.
And for daycares, I think a lot of parents saw it just like that: a cheap way to keep the kid away from them for longer.
By deepsun 2026-03-0921:40 Haifa study result was only possible with small enough fines. Larger fines would solve that easily.
By maest 2026-03-104:36 Increase the punishment for repeat offenders, ultimately suspending their license.
This is very common outside of the US, btw.
By seanmcdirmid 2026-03-102:07 I don't see how that is viable when the fine for late pickup is $6/minute.
Hopefully other states don't follow this pattern; I don't think the government should be installing surveillance arrays, even if it's "for the children" or public safety.
Trading a little liberty for a little safety and all that.
The problem is ever since COVID the cops don't do their job and everyone drives terribly.
Maybe it exists but I wish there was more heavy hitting articles/research on this. I feel like an absolute grumpy old man but it feels drastically different compared to my younger years driving and I am only 40. These days I rarely see police on the side of the road ticketing and when I do it’s usually on a highway. Never do I see people getting pulled over in city streets.
My thesis has been an uptick on BS calls. Said differently the bad neighborhoods have gotten worse and funding for police is mismanaged.
By Spooky23 2026-03-100:09 Absolutely. They shut down for COVID and never came back.
A big part of traffic stops was to find weed and trade up for an arrest. With legalization, they’ve shifted to camera work, which has gotten even bigger with Flock.
By hamdingers 2026-03-1016:47 Does this NYT article satisfy? https://archive.is/6BzFc
I am constantly amazed at how many people blatantly run red lights now. It used to be that people would sometimes press their luck on a yellow a little bit, but now it'll be red for several seconds and people will still just drive right on through.
I'd love if the police enforced this insanely dangerous behavior instead of trying to catch people going 10 over on the highway.
By stephen_g 2026-03-0923:07 I see this a lot too here in Australia now, and yes it used to be pretty unusual but now I see it every day. I've sometimes wondered if it's just a frequency illusion but I'm sure it has got much worse, maybe since the COVID times?
By matheusmoreira 2026-03-101:241 reply It depends. Traffic lights are just mutexes. They are there to stop traffic so that other traffic may pass safely. There's no point if there aren't any other cars. Obviously anyone running a light on a busy intersection deserves to get fined but if you know the terrain, have good visibility into the road where the other traffic comes from and can clearly see there are no vehicles present, running the red light is utterly harmless.
In my city, certain traffic lights literally turn off at night. There's not enough traffic flowing to justify them.
I can’t tell if you’re joking or seriously trying to justify running red lights.
By matheusmoreira 2026-03-102:081 reply Use your eyes, your situational awareness and your best judgement. The traffic light is not god's word.
In my neighborhood there used to be a traffic light that would be red for a long time despite not usefully regulating any traffic whatsoever. It stopped traffic despite the fact no other traffic could possibly conflict with it. People realized this and routinely ran that light with zero consequences. At some point the city realized it too and redesigned the traffic controls so that the light would be green in this situation.
Stop training yourself to run red lights before you kill some body.
The correct action is to constantly bug your local representative to fix the problem, not break a law written in blood.
By AyyEye 2026-03-1011:53 I understand the desire to act holier than thou and pretend that going through a red light with no traffic is murder in the making, but the situation they advocate for (running when clear) is even written into law in some states (at least for motorcycles/bicycles). Some vehicles don't trigger the sensors and the lights never change, so you are allowed to go after a full stop. I would not be surprised in the least if there were some states where the wording of the law applied to cars as well.
By matheusmoreira 2026-03-103:151 reply The correct action is to understand why certain barriers were erected in your way before attempting to demolish them. If you don't understand, just respect the barrier. If you understand, you know if, when and under which conditions it can be safely bypassed. Use your judgement.
Jaywalking laws were also written in blood. People break them every single day regardless because they have eyes and can look both ways to determine if it is safe to cross the street before actually doing it.
And yet, jaywalking pedestrians get killed daily, despite their best attempts at determining whether it's safe to cross. The problem with allowing drivers to use their best judgment as to whether it's safe to continue through a red light (after stopping) is that a non-zero percent of those drivers will fail to judge the situation correctly, especially during an edge case they rarely encounter.
By matheusmoreira 2026-03-105:071 reply It's impossible to get hit by cars if there are no cars around you. Vehicles are not going to materialize out of nowhere and crash into you. They are going to be funneled into your path by the roads. If you look at the road and see zero traffic, then you cannot be hit by traffic. Even if you run a red light.
Obviously, if you can't see the road where the cars will come from, then you cannot know if there are any cars coming towards you in a potentially intersecting trajectory.
> Vehicles are not going to materialize out of nowhere and crash into you.
At 60kmh a vehicle travels 16 meters per second. In freedom units: at 37mph a vehicle travels 54 feet per second.
A vehicle will materialize out of nowhere and crash into you.
By matheusmoreira 2026-03-1018:14 In my city there are segments where I can see several kilometers ahead, including the traffic lights and their associated roads and traffic.
If you can't understand the fact it's safe to run a red light when you can see the roads are clear for several kilometers ahead of you, then I simply don't know what else to say.
Even police does this while roaming about on patrol.
Honestly, these arguments sound like cartoon logic. Guy looks both ways and sees the roads are clear but on the exact second he starts to cross the street 10 cars materialize out of nowhere at 200 km/h and nearly run him over just to teach him a lesson. This isn't how the world works.
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-1011:461 reply >A vehicle will materialize out of nowhere and crash into you.
God I hate these sort of responsibility shirking opinions and their peddlers.
I do this several times a day in a major US city for close to a decade now and I've never had a close call closer than the "two people trying to pass each other in the hallway" routine with a driver trying to take a right on red.
Vehicles and everything else on this rock flying through space obey the same laws of physics.
If the traffic on a road goes X miles per hour, then simply don't cross it where you don't have a sufficiently long line of sight. If crossing where the lines of sight are sufficient is not tractable due to traffic volumes or road construction then cross at a marked crossing, intersection that interrupts traffic flow or use proper body language and someone will stop for you.
Sure, you might get exceptionally unlucky and choose to cross at the exact minute some car that's a few standard deviations above the norm but you might also get hit by lightening.
> I do this several times a day in a major US city for close to a decade now and I
I, I, I
> Vehicles and everything else on this rock flying through space obey the same laws of physics.
Yes. Yes they do.
That's why some countries (e.g. Sweden) actually have this in drivers ed: how fast a vehicle travels, how long it takes for the driver to react, what the stopping distance is for a vehicle etc.
They even teach things like "parked cars are a double problem because you can have people especially kids suddenly appear from behind them".
Or things like "at night you only see this far, and judging distance to things becomes harder".
But all that, including laws of physics, is invalidated by a litany of "I, I, mine, my, me".
By matheusmoreira 2026-03-1018:25 Obviously. Don't take risks near pedestrians, near schools, near parked cars. Don't make assumptions in low visibility conditions where you can't actually see what's ahead of you. Use your judgement.
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-1015:591 reply I'm not special. I'm fairly normal. Hundreds of millions of people manage to walk and drive as uneventfully as I do. The presence of some few number of people who can't manage to jaywalk decently and not run reds when it matters doesn't justify saddling the literal entire rest of society with some automotive flavor of 1984 anymore than some small number people robbing convenience stores to pay for their drug addiction justifies subjecting all of society to pervasive surveillance and the war on drugs fueled police state.
By troupo 2026-03-1016:19 I couldn't parse your demagoguery, bad analogies and non-sequiturs, and I don't want to.
Adieu.
I have noticed a severe uptick in bad semi-truck drivers on the interstate since COVID, I'll agree at least with that part.
The local cops here have always just run plates for stolen vehicles. Getting a ticket is almost unheard of. I don't know what their deal is, but you can speed right past them in the other lane, or if they're just parked on the corner.
I'm guessing you still can't pass them on a two-lane road without poking their ego.
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-101:20 That has more to do with CDL mills out there cranking out minimally qualified drivers.
I’m not sure if it was COVID or the social movements around the same time like defund the police. Here in Seattle when defunding the police was suggested the police department threatened to close the precinct in a large residential area. Basically they attempted to extort the voters. I think the police have realized that crime is good for them because the more of it voters see the more they think police are needed.
Which leads to the extreme—maximal crime leads to maximum police budgets!
Vilify them, defund them, restrict them, reduce the number of officers to the lowest level in 30 years, and then when crime increases in the next few years .. was it maybe because of everything that was just done? No, that's not it, it's a grand conspiracy across every police officer in Seattle who coordinated/decided to be evil together and intentionally let crime spread. Yup, that all checks out.
By lazyasciiart 2026-03-104:29 Ok so now that crime is lower can we blame them?
By mulmen 2026-03-107:11 I wasn't inviting another tired relitigation of the defund movement, only observing the apparent origin of police caring even less about crime.
By dfxm12 2026-03-104:09 Pre, post and during COVID, you rarely see someone pulled over for running a red because you rarely see it happen. When you do, a cop it is even more rare to be present. These rare events stick out, yes.
Depending on the situation, it might be dangerous for a cop to also run a red to give chase, so consider it might be their job to let it go.
By estimator7292 2026-03-0922:181 reply Cameras aren't going to solve that.
The "problem" being solved with cameras is "cops aren't generating enough traffic ticket revenue"
Would it not? I actually don’t think I would mind speeding cameras and the like. Put a camera on every street and auto ticket every car.
My city does it. It sucks ass. It’s a 70% vendor / 30% city revenue share and people avoid the city and use side streets to avoid the main avenues.
By BenjiWiebe 2026-03-104:512 reply Are the speed limits set unreasonably low? Otherwise one could always try abiding to the speed limit.
By 1123581321 2026-03-105:141 reply Most US cities have lower posted speeds than average drivers’ perception of safe speeds.
Oftentimes comically lower. I remember in Chicago the interstates having posted speed limits of 45mph... the average flow of traffic outside of rush hour was easily north of 70mph.
Looking even at normal arterial streets, many streets in Seattle are marked 25, but you'd be hard-pressed to find even a cop going under 30 most of the time.
I truly don't understand US road design. The construction of the road and the posted speed limit almost never are even gently correlated other than on a few select residential side streets in a few select cities who have rebuilt streets based on safety studies.
By throwaway2037 2026-03-1012:09
This comment seems a bit odd to me. I Google about it and learned (from various sources):> I remember in Chicago the interstates having posted speed limits of 45mph... the average flow of traffic outside of rush hour was easily north of 70mph.
This excludes construction or work zones.> 45 mph (72 km/h) in downtown Chicago, where all the major interstates mergeThat seems pretty reasonable. I've seen a few places in the US where several major interstates merge and the post speed limit is quite low -- 45-55 mph.
By Spooky23 2026-03-1119:38 20 mph.
That's ridiculous, a radar that snaps a photo when a car goes over the speed limit is not, by any conceivable definition, a surveillance array.
There are real surveillance arrays, please worry about those instead.
By matheusmoreira 2026-03-101:311 reply It absolutely is a surveillance array. It is trivial to record the time and license plates of every vehicle captured by the camera and fully map out their movements.
By DiogenesKynikos 2026-03-1011:221 reply The government is already doing this using your phone.
Which proves that if they can, they will. So there’s no reason to give them more ways to do it.
By DiogenesKynikos 2026-03-1018:161 reply The reason is that it increases traffic safety.
It's even possible to set the cameras up in such a way that they only store data when a traffic violation occurs. That would address the surveillance issue.
I have a strong sense that the primary objection people have to red light cameras is that they don't like getting caught running red lights, and that the surveillance argument is a rationalization, not the real objection.
By matheusmoreira 2026-03-1018:561 reply Automated traffic law enforcement is surveillance. The fact it's limited in scope and functionality doesn't matter. It's still surveillance.
All surveillance increases safety. The cost is freedom.
Do you trust humans with the ability to judge the situation and the freedom to decide to run a red light if they think it's safe? Or do you surveil every intersection and punish all infractions regardless of conditions or the existence of actual victims?
For people like me, it's a matter of basic human dignity. I want to be a human with the capacity for judgement and the power to act on it. I want to decide for myself. I want to live in a society that recognizes this. I won't sacrifice this dignity in the name of safety.
By DiogenesKynikos 2026-03-112:48 > Do you trust humans with the ability to judge the situation and the freedom to decide to run a red light if they think it's safe?
Absolutely not.
> For people like me, it's a matter of basic human dignity. I want to be a human with the capacity for judgement and the power to act on it.
Your human dignity does not require you to be able to run red lights when you think it's okay.
This is libertarian ideology taken to the extreme.
By XorNot 2026-03-0921:56 Is only said by those days intending to provide neither?
Is said in place of using actual arguments or evidence?
By hamdingers 2026-03-0921:592 reply These cameras are by definition still cameras triggered by radar or laser systems, they're inactive unless a speeding vehicle is present. Hardly the surveillance array you're imagining.
Noooo. Most cameras retain 30 days of video. That allows officers to review the violation.
These camera systems have always been about surveillance. Flock adds the Silicon Valley software process, while the older tech is “law enforcement tech”.
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-101:23 This. You say "but we're gonna catch people who speed" or "terrorists" or something like that and all the people who would be against your surveillance suddenly can't get enough of it.
By sejje 2026-03-0922:17 Well, they're putting up the flock cameras, too. We have four in a local small town.
But I'm guessing you are only correct sometimes. I bet some of them can be live-viewed, or track license plates.
But AB 645 is designed to punish and deter rather than compensate, which creates a genuine constitutional vulnerability under California's Article I, Section 16 jury trial guarantee.
The structural problem is that revenue goes to program costs and traffic calming, not to anyone harmed by speeding, which makes the fines punitive in character under any substance-over-label analysis.
The lack of DMV points and criminal record weakens the argument somewhat, but under California's substance-over-label approach those omissions aren't dispositive. They merely show the legislature knew how to stay on the civil side of the line, not necessarily that it succeeded.
If a court finds the penalties punitive in character, the owner-liability structure becomes a compounding problem: California's state due process protections are arguably more robust than federal, and imposing a punitive fine on a registered owner without proof they were driving, while burden-shifting exculpation to them looks increasingly difficult to sustain.
By joshuamorton 2026-03-103:482 reply Everything you've said applies to parking tickets too. You can't prove that the owner parked the vehicle.
Tha owner is ultimately civily liable if the vehicle is parked in a way that it shouldn't be. Extending that same civil liability to the active operation, as opposed to only the consequences of active operation, seems perfectly reasonable.
By joshuamorton 2026-03-1016:301 reply The mentioned fines are $1-200, which is in the same range as parking tickets.
I think the best argument is that license points are criminal in nature, but I don't really buy that.
By joshuamorton 2026-03-1020:02 And in fact the law at issue doesn't even assign points.
By ImPostingOnHN 2026-03-1012:402 reply > Tha owner is ultimately civily liable if the vehicle is parked in a way that it shouldn't be. Extending that same civil liability to the active operation, as opposed to only the consequences of active operation, seems perfectly reasonable.
As this judgement reveals, such a suggestion is patently unreasonable, for the reasons listed in the judgement
By joshuamorton 2026-03-1020:011 reply Having read the order, it doesn't really justify the central claim, that these are criminal, and in my opinion a lot of the context cuts against that (the liability being only a fine and some other things).
By ImPostingOnHN 2026-03-1023:27 That is a fair view to hold as a prior. Indeed, the judge took that context into account when judging that it was a criminal matter. Other states which do things differently might have received a different judgement based on their own context.
> can't impact your driving privilege
Unlike improper parking, running red lights should impact said privilege as potential consequences are way more serious.
By throwaway2037 2026-03-1012:00 You raise an interesting counterpoint. What if the red light violation ticket issued by an automated camera remains a civil penalty, but it is very large, like 1,500 USD? At some point, the number gets so high that it effectively impacts your driving privilege. Of course, I would expect these new civil penalties to be challenged in court as being "dual purpose".
By quietbritishjim 2026-03-1010:192 reply In the UK, speeding fines are also backed by "points" added to your license - get enough of them and you lose your license altogether for a while. It's similar in at least some other European countries.
That is a definite punishment for anyone that cares enough about driving that they were doing it in the first place, while also clearly not being revenue generating (in fact it prevents future fine revenue). I'm not sure that would wash in the car-centric States though (but it would make it an even juicier punishment). But since you don't get banned immediately, it's potentially low-impact on a per-ticket basis.
By mixdup 2026-03-1014:51 Points on your license are already a thing in most states in the US
By SturgeonsLaw 2026-03-1011:08 Australia has this too. It helps with the problem that a fine alone is negligible enough for the wealthy that the road rules would effectively not apply to them.
PA did this with construction zone cameras. I'm not sure where that landed because its been a while since I've seen one. I successfully appealed my ticket to the magistrate. It initially started as a pilot program and the law requires signage which during the pilot was quite inconspicuous. After the launch the sign was changed to a tiny little thing, about 1/5 the size of the pilot program.
I was going 5 over the reduced speed limit, in the slow lane with rush hour traffic. That thing must've issued thousands of tickets.
By bobthepanda 2026-03-102:06 The problem is that you need to have decent legislators and hold them accountable, and unfortunately we seem to be backsliding on making that happen.
By YokoZar 2026-03-0922:27 Why can't they impact insurance? Are CA insurance companies prohibited from using non-criminal information when deciding who to cover or set rates?
Given that they insure cars more than drivers, it seems kinda reasonable that they be allowed to look at tickets for cars.
By tschwimmer 2026-03-0922:531 reply >It also means penalties are limited to fines and can't impact your driving privilege or insurance.
If this is the case, what are the consequences of not paying the fine? I interpret your statement to mean that they can't prevent registration of your car. Can they tow you in SF for unpaid fines?
By bombcar 2026-03-0923:04 I assume they meant you can't lose your license (or get "points" that your insurance company can use to charge you more). I would fully expect that any unpaid fines would be added to next year's registration, and if you don't register and pay, you're driving an unregistered vehicle.
By lokar 2026-03-0923:37 AIUI, calling a law civil vs criminal and/or limiting penalties to fines only are not always enough to remove the protection of due process.
Yea, that would be great then I can completely ignore them as I am not poor.
It just turns speeding into something you can buy.
While I agree with your sarcasm, this proposal is a least bad scenario: no enforcement is worse as there’s less incentive to respect the lights.
Sadly money and power buying freedom of law isn’t restricted to road rules.
I would argue such enforcement does not need automation and such automation is often for revenue generation vs saftey focused.
Also, I am a bit biased here after working at flock.
I would argue living in the US has rotted your brain.
Don’t want the state to generate revenue? Literally just stop speeding and stop running red lights.
Is there a non-automatic light enforcement other than placing a policemen at every light - which makes the light useless?
Revenu generation is a bonus point: in my country taxes that incentive smokers to quit are directed to healthcare and most of the speeding tickets revenue goes to road maintenance and safety.
I’d prefer a public handling but the trend is privatization with everything : from health to education to water treatment. Even military assets! IMHO red light tickets enforcement is as much important.
By ggiigg 2026-03-101:26 > California's new speed camera pilot (AB 645) explicitly solves for this.
Your mixing up states. California's law from above comment is NOT about running red lights.
By bsder 2026-03-0922:36 > While I agree with your sarcasm, this proposal is a least bad scenario: no enforcement is worse as there’s less incentive to respect the lights.
I disagree. This is acknowledging that these are revenue products rather than safety enhancement.
If you want safety enforcement, put a damn cop there. It WILL work. This isn't hard. People are creatures of habit and you don't need to adjust the behavior of very many of them to make the whole group change.
If you don't want to put a cop there, you don't want safety enforcement.
Well, it's red-light running. But I don't think even rich people will just breeze through every red and pay the fines; it'll add up quickly.
Yea, I think the chance of death will encourage them not to run every red light making mass surveillance unnecessary. The money is a noop for the rich in thus case.
If that is the argument, then we should just drop enforcement of traffic rules alltogether. Because people don't want to have an accident?
But driving reckless and having a big well protected car helps of course, so everyone speeding would want even bigger and better armored cars.
Those daring to drive light vecicles or even bicycles, screw them?
Here in germany we managed to have automated red light tickets, without saving video at all btw. Just a picture (or multiple) of the incident. The picture is tied to the traffuc lights logic so knows when red light was on.
Now I am not really a fan of them, but they do work without mass surveillance.
By ggiigg 2026-03-1013:59 Privacy protections in US are horrid compared to Germany. Grounded in reality, not going to happen uniformly in all states.
Also, I bike often and driver right turn on green without looking has nearly gotten me a few times. Dont get me started on lack of bicycle infra in most us cities :0
By whycome 2026-03-100:21 There's the timing aspect of it as well. As it stands, you only find out about your 'offense' weeks after the fact. If it were a human interaction (eg speeding/police stop) you'd know right away and still have the relevant information in mind to understand the charge and maybe defend. The ability to know and defend should be critical to any charge. K
By ihavekids 2026-03-103:34 I don't this is is as cut and dry as you're making it seem. See SEC v. Jarkesy. The Supreme Court decided that, when the SEC seeks civil penalties for securities fraud, the defendant has the right to a trial by jury pursuant to the Seventh Amendment.
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-0922:04 >Tickets issued by these cameras are civil penalties issued to the owner of the vehicle, like parking tickets, rather than a criminal moving violation. This means the tickets are just as constitutional as parking tickets. It also means penalties are limited to fines and can't impact your driving privilege or insurance.
So what does this say about the legitimacy of having those fines affect your license and insurance when issues by a real flesh and blood cop?
Sounds to me like that by default they shouldn't be affecting squat because there's an implicit "the cops will mostly only pull people over if it's unconscionably bad" filter going on.
By class3shock 2026-03-102:58 That sounds fine except the part where private companies have cameras everywhere surveilling us, directly tied into dmv records to identify us, and then do whatever they want with that data. And not on a random store front or a persons front door but the major roads we all must use.
Even forgetting that, all this means is people that don't care about getting a ticket, either because they won't pay or it's a such a small amount to them that they don't care. just do what they want. Nothing is being "enforced", just taxed.
By owlstuffing 2026-03-1013:04 > California's new speed camera pilot (AB 645) explicitly solves for this... like parking tickets
That makes the Florida judge's framing of red light cameras as a revenue generating scheme even more applicable. More than that, it ambiguates the crime.
By dotancohen 2026-03-103:06 So to work around civil protections in law, California now does not consider speeding to be an offense that should impact one's driving privilege or insurance? Just so they could collect that sweet fine money?
These systems are still often too expensive to operate safely. Over and over again these systems have been seen as needing to break even rather than being treated as a public service. But if they actually work then incidence of red light violations should go down, and hopefully substantially. So whatever fines you expect to receive in the first months before drivers adapt are more revenue than you should see at one year or more.
So when you start worrying about it as a cost center, then there is a perverse incentive to do things like shorten yellow lights. Short yellows have been proven to create more vehicular fatalities than people running red lights intentionally. And so the person who makes that decision to shorten yellows to boost tickets is effectively committing murder to keep the system “working”. Which is disgusting. Ghoulish, even.
It is literally better in such situations to simply dismantle the system than keep it running.
By hamdingers 2026-03-0921:031 reply They are speed cameras, not red light cameras.
That said, the bill addresses this category of abuse directly: if a speed camera fails to reduce 85th percentile speeds or violation volumes within 18 months it must be removed.
There are also substantial limits on how the revenues can be spent. If you are interested in this topic it's worth a read: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...
By hinkley 2026-03-0922:18 Good call. I consider the precedent set here to apply equally to both cases, and the stop light cases tend to be much more egregious, as I've telegraphed in my top-level comment.
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-0923:40 Yup. Cameras "improve" safety in intersections--but not overall. It's just displaced. I would have thought the displacement reduced the severity but the injury data says otherwise. It's a case of removing the top and bottom stair.
As you say, it encourages short yellows. I am aware of having "run" one red light in my life--got ticketed for it. The yellow timing was set as short as legally permitted--a driver had a narrow window to decide go or stop. Unfortunately, what happens when neither is an option? I was in the left turn lane and past the decision point. I was already slowing when the light went yellow, I saw it and knew there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
There's also the problem that a huge number of red light tickets are issued to people who "run" red lights in a completely normal and safe manner: making a right turn on red. Car #1 stands as far forward as they can without being in the cross traffic path, the other cars line up behind. First car goes, the rest move forward. Nobody pays attention to the stop line--but the camera does.
In the real world, neither speed nor red light cameras pay for themselves except when something about the situation causes a problem--and it would be better addressed by fixing the true problem. Likewise, I have never seen a cop watching a situation for offenders unless there was something out of sync between the law and the road. Half of the traps I've seen over the years have disappeared when the root cause was fixed.
By Xelbair 2026-03-1012:48 Congratulations, you've put subscription on running red lights.
Interesting that your use of "solves for this" is with regards to the end result of being able to write more red light tickets. In my view, the courts solved this by deeming at least certain uses of red light cameras illegal.
Automated traffic control is objectively one of the most pro-social things we could possibly ever create. Yes it is good if more red light cameras exist and face fewer legal challenges.
> the courts solved this by deeming at least certain uses of red light cameras illegal.
This is incorrect. The court in Florida said certain arrangement of the statutory basis (a different one than in CA) for red light cameras is illegal.
You're coming with the assumption that pro-social is a universal goal, and that it is objectively good.
I'm not even disagreeing with you here, but that's a huge assumption yo make and you are granting pretty broad authority to the state in the name of that goal. Where do you draw the line of power the state shouldn't have despite it using the authority today towards pro-social goals?
Yes I do think things that are good for society are objectively good insofar as "objectively good" has any meaning at all.
Automated traffic enforcement isn't "granting" any new authority whatsoever to the state. The state already has the authority, it just uses it unfairly and imperfectly enough to fail to produce meaningful deterrence.
> Where do you draw the line of power the state shouldn't have despite it using the authority today towards pro-social goals?
I draw the line at the point where their power becomes not-pro-social, of course.
You and I can argue about what's pro-social or not (which this clearly is), but not whether pro-social things are good or not (which they clearly are).
Its usually much harder to decide what's good for society than its made out to be. Externalities matter, something can seem good for society today and turn out to have serious downsides that either weren't known upfront or didn't show up until later.
With regards to authority here, this absolutely is a case of granting more power and authority to the state, or more specifically the state claiming it.
The judge here said its illegal to use redlight cameras in certain situations. Based on the prior comment, if California found a loophole so they can get to the same end by labeling it something different that is them functionally claiming new authority. The judge says its illegal, the state says no its not we can do this anyway.
Yes I agree, we should consider all of those things.
Considering all of those things, fully automated traffic enforcement in general is a clear net positive.
> The judge here said its illegal to use redlight cameras in certain situations. Based on the prior comment, if California found a loophole so they can get to the same end by labeling it something different that is them functionally claiming new authority. The judge says its illegal, the state says no its not we can do this anyway.
Sorry but this is just too surface-level of an understanding of how law actually works that I can't justify engaging with it.
Not only are California and Florida totally different jurisdictions, but even if they weren't, different statutory bases for the same effective policy can have different levels of legal defensibility or constitutionality. It's not just possible, but in fact quite common for policies to be struck down and then reintroduced with (effectively) a different argument for its validity, and for the new policy (same policy, different argument supporting it) to be valid.
Understanding how laws and the judiciary actually work is truly fascinating stuff and I hope your confusion about this apparent contradiction (which it's not) actually piques your curiosity to dig deeper.
By _heimdall 2026-03-1017:52 > Sorry but this is just too surface-level of an understanding of how law actually works that I can't justify engaging with it.
This comes off a bit strangely when you go on to engage with the discussion. It seems unnecessarily dismissive.
Legal precedent within the US does not stop at state lines. A ruling in Florida is applicable present in California.
My argument here, though, isn't that California's approach is illegal or would be overturned if challenged based on this Florida precedent. My point was simply that the state, California in this case, is claiming effectively new authority by playing word games to get around precedent that could otherwise deem their use of traffic cams illegal.
I'm still not sure how you can so blanketly deem automated traffic enforcement a net good. There are a ton of details that would matter, from how its implemented and overseen to how tight or broad the authority is and what that means for future use of the same authority.
No, their use of “solves for this” is with regards to disincentivizing an incredibly dangerous habit that randomly kills the most vulnerable bystanders in the vicinity at the rate of many thousands per year
By _heimdall 2026-03-104:52 You're misrepresenting. The article is about red light camera tickets and the GP is specifically describing how California got around this legal issue in the way they write tickets in their new camera pilot. They mention nothing of bystanders or their vulnerability.
By danesparza 2026-03-0920:493 reply "It also means penalties are limited to fines and can't impact your driving privilege or insurance."
Wow! So if you have enough money, it's cool to run as many red lights as you want?
By hamdingers 2026-03-0920:561 reply I understand your criticism and it is fair, but this represents and improvement over the current state which is effectively no enforcement.
They're speed cameras, not red light cameras, and the revenues go towards street improvements to reduce speeding. So you could speed as much as you can afford, but eventually you'll have bought enough traffic calming infrastructure it'll be prohibitively difficult to keep getting tickets.
By danesparza 2026-03-1012:07 "They're speed cameras, not red light cameras..."
Thank you for this clarification and the additional detail you provide!
It sounds like the money collected by fines has to go to more traffic calming infrastructure - which is a pretty big deal.
Constitutional protections aren't trumped by mere issues of governmental convenience.
What's the alternative? No rules at all? Immediate death penalty for anyone who runs a red in front of a cop? Seizing and auctioning off the car? Deporting the offender to Texas? Something else? Revoke their license?
By danesparza 2026-03-1012:011 reply Wow dude. Calm down.
"What's the alternative?". Maybe a more thoughtful law.
Perhaps a scaled fine system? (The second fine costs 2x the first fine, the third fine costs 3x the first fine, etc)
Maybe after 10 fines you get a point on your license?
Maybe the state has to prove it was you driving so they setup more (but discreet) cameras at intersections?
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-1017:05 I say we set the delay to red and green to be 0 state wide and use the cameras to fine people who don't start moving within a short amount of time after they get green.
Betcha red light running drops like a rock after that.
By exabrial 2026-03-100:21 What do you mean other states follow this? Of course not. It’s a nuisance, not a safety measure.
By _blk 2026-03-104:08 ...and just like parking tickets they shouldn't exist on govt property
By bikesharing 2026-03-103:58 [dead]
By observationist 2026-03-0921:593 reply Or maybe not have automated surveillance robonannies playing gotcha games and pocketing money, often impacting those who can least afford it, over technicalities and arbitrary rules made up to benefit the people doing the collecting.
The idea that AI enforcement won't be just as corrupt and capricious as any other form of government run extortion is bonkers. You're talking systems with less oversight than openclaw being run by people whose entire goal is to make as much money as possible, no matter the source. Private, unaccountable companies with effectively no oversight with the legal right to send you invoices for things you might or might not have done, and the cost for disputing it might well exceed the cost of just paying it and getting it over with.
Why are Californians so hellbent on giving their money to the government, given the absolute shitshow that is their budget and track record? The only good things that have happened in California for decades comes out of private enterprise, but all the crazy nonsense is fostered and maintained, apparently quite vigorously, by elected governments.
I'm furious that 10% of my federal income taxes end up going to California's bullshit, I can't imagine what it would be like having to live there.
Seriously, it's bordering on levels of insanity right up there with thinking that Jefferey Epstein would make a great babysitter. Do people just not pay attention? Does the weather just make everyone complacent and docile?
Speed cams and automated gotchas allowing the government to raid your pocketbook are a bad thing. There's no framing or circumstances where that's good.
> The idea that AI enforcement won't be just as corrupt and capricious as any other form of government run extortion is bonkers. [...] Private, unaccountable companies with effectively no oversight
In the specific case this thread is about - that of red light cameras - presumably the camera produces a photograph showing a red light, a vehicle going through it, and the vehicle's license plate. Plus a video, showing the light was orange for the legally required amount of time, and showing the absence of any exceptional circumstances (e.g. ambulances).
As law enforcement goes, that really seems like the least capricious, highest oversight law enforcement I can imagine.
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-0923:52 Unfortunately, all too often it doesn't.
Some cameras only produce a photograph. Some produce a video with the light status showing on it--but there have been cases that's wrong, the camera recording what it was programmed to do which didn't match the real lights.
You need actual video of the scene that can be examined and which is of sufficiently good quality that the identity of the car can be confirmed. Very often it does not exist.
Likewise, speed cameras should record enough that one can do a time/distance calculation to confirm the speed--because the system can be miscalibrated or can be fooled by large, flat surfaces.
Or look what has happened with breathalyzers. Last I heard if a judge grants the discovery request for the source code the case gets dropped. And the whole thing is based on a flawed principle in the first place: the ratio of breath alcohol to blood alcohol varies substantially between people--setting it for average isn't accurate. As a screening test for doing a blood draw, fine, but it should not be allowed anywhere near the courtroom. (Some states get this right, some do not.)
And, yes, ambulances. I forgot about another time I know I ran a red light. Something with lights/sirens was coming up behind, no lane was empty, I was in the only lane with one car. Lots of space at the intersection, I pulled forward and turned hard right, clearing my lane without actually entering the cross path.
By maxerickson 2026-03-0922:212 reply I'm furious that 10% of my federal income taxes end up going to California's bullshit, I can't imagine what it would be like having to live there.
Your taxes getting evenly distributed is one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that removing California from the US would either increase your taxes or require reductions in federal spending.
By YokoZar 2026-03-0922:29 Yes, California has long been a "donor state", ie one that pays substantially more federal tax revenue than gets spent there. This shouldn't be too surprising as it's much richer than average and the tax system is approximately progressive.
By observationist 2026-03-0922:441 reply Removing California's corruption, ineptitude, and fraud would eliminate any problems I have with my tax dollars being sent that way.
By maxerickson 2026-03-0922:47 Well that's my point. "sent that way" is not entirely fair. Your state is spending California tax dollars, or so, not the other way around.
By exabrial 2026-03-102:38 What’s crazy is every dissenter of the parent comment is being downvoted, despite HN being strongly against this type of enforcement in the past.
>"The judge frames the red light camera scheme as a revenue generating scheme, not a public safety measure."
In my own experience, when they took down the red light cameras in my area now people are not afraid to run red lights ~2 to ~3 seconds after it's red. See this kind of thing on a regular basis. Every now and then there's a serious accident.
The objective evidence indicates that accidents tend to go up after red light cameras go up, generally because the operators lower the yellow light time to increase fees.
By hamdingers 2026-03-0921:442 reply The objective evidence shows an increase in rear-end crashes but a reduction in injury and fatal crashes, offering a net overall benefit.
Council et al., 2005 -- https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/05048/...
By giantg2 2026-03-0922:30 This states that there are many variables they were not able to control for, such as the yellow light timing, as I previously mentioned. Warning signs were another major factor. There doesn't appear to be enough investigation into the protected left issue.
This is pretty damning, in my opinion. AKA we did some cheap analysis on a small dataset, without confidence or effect size, and just agree with the people running the programs.
"The intent of the multivariate regression analysis was to confirm the direction of the effect, not to establish effects with statistical significance or to assess the size of the effect. To undertake analyses for these purer purposes would have required a substantially larger database, much more precision in the estimate of economic effect at each site, and more accurate specification and measurement of the independent variables. For the purposes of this current investigation, it suffices that both the univariate and multivariate analyses are reasonably in accord with the perceptions that are commonly held by those involved in red-light-camera programs."
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-0923:551 reply There's a regression to the mean issue at work.
Sometimes an intersection simply has bad luck, draws more accidents than anything about it would cause. Put a camera there, you'll see an "improvement".
By SecretDreams 2026-03-101:151 reply One might argue the intersection itself is the problem and should be redesigned, as well as adjoining roadways feeding into the offending intersection.
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-1014:202 reply If it's consistently high something needs fixing. But accidents are random, there will always be some intersections that by pure chance have more accidents. Put cameras on those, presto, cameras "work".
By SecretDreams 2026-03-113:01 Some intersections having more accidents by pure chance is kind of an oxymoron, imo.
By digitalPhonix 2026-03-0923:291 reply > generally because the operators lower the yellow light time to increase fees
I'm skeptical of this claim because the red light camera operators are usually contracted by municipalities. They don't have any direct control over the light cycles.
(Yes, obviously they can be in cahoots with the municipality, but I would be surprised if that was common and not the exception)
Do you have any evidence of this?
By 1123581321 2026-03-105:171 reply Chicago is one publicized example. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/10/chicago-shortens...
By digitalPhonix 2026-03-105:541 reply I am chosing, perhaps naively, that the Chicago red light cameras are an exception and not common because that whole process was criminal: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/former-redflex-ceo-sent...
By 1123581321 2026-03-1013:32 That I couldn’t say. It at least provides a model. Most city or county governments have some influence over their traffic engineering or streets staff as far as high level planning concerns.
By advisedwang 2026-03-0921:42 Neither of you share any references for the objective facts you claim to be stating. At least link an article or a study.
can this not be regulated? yellow light timing must not have changed for the last 12 months before adding cameras
By giantg2 2026-03-0922:02 Better to set it using a standard such as 1 second per 10mph of speed limit.
By themafia 2026-03-105:09 So the objective evidence indicates that yellow light timing is the most important factor in reducing accidents.
Why are we discussing cameras?
By croes 2026-03-0923:17 Maybe people should brake on yellow lights.
By AdamN 2026-03-109:58 I feel like when these tickets are struck down it's still smart to send notices to the homes of the cars doing this in more of a shaming way - even if the fine itself isn't legal. I suspect it would increase safety a small amount just by doing that.
Fines (and points) are better of course.
By SunshineTheCat 2026-03-0920:292 reply I've followed a few cases surrounding traffic cameras that have been ruled unconstitutional on the grounds that individuals have the right to face their accuser.
The question in those cases came down to if the operators of the cam can be considered "accusers."
They widely considered that of course the cam itself didn't count as an accuser, but the question was how "automated" the system was. If there was a human who flagged it, the system was fine, if it was fully automated, they were unconstitutional.
Many states don't share this opinion, but an interesting argument nonetheless.
By qingcharles 2026-03-0922:241 reply Couldn't you say the same of drug testing spectrometers etc? The end operator of the equipment has to appear in court to testify to the proper operation of the machine. [0]
[0] Unless the defendant waives that right and stipulates to the prosecutor's statement about the machine.
By bombcar 2026-03-0923:09 This literally occurs; one of the reasons that the drug testing lab is usually somewhat local. The prosecution called the individual who ran the test as a witness, and he had clearly been called for similar things many times before.
By burningChrome 2026-03-0920:352 reply They started putting them up in the midwest where I live. The interesting thing is if you get a ticket and just pay it? Nothing. If you get a ticket and you challenge it, the judge will immediately throw it out for the reason you pointed out or just dismiss it before it even gets to court by sending out a form letter saying they nullified the ticket, no reason to pay it.
So in essence, if you know this is what they're doing, you're good. But they're not telling people so the money grift continues unabated and in place.
So if it's established as unconstitutional, couldn't you file a criminal complaint of official oppression against the members of whatever government approved the cameras since they are levying unconstitutional fines?
As an individual and not the government, you can't file a criminal action.
You could file a civil action for violation of constitutional rights, but under Roberts, SCOTUS has basically been ripping out all of the mechanisms that would let you file such suits.
By giantg2 2026-03-0922:39 "As an individual and not the government, you can't file a criminal action."
You can file with the police, if they take it. You can also file as a private criminal complaint in many jurisdictions. However, it's up to the DA to approve it most of the time. There can be an appeal process where a judge would make a determination.
But yes, if the whole system is corrupt, then there's not much to do.
By 15155 2026-03-1016:35 > you can't file a criminal action.
Georgia and a handful of other states absolutely allow this.
By empressplay 2026-03-0922:431 reply If they invalidate every contested fine nobody has any standing to make a legal complaint.
By giantg2 2026-03-0922:55 They're only invalidating it if you fight it. The people who paid it and later realized it was unconstitutional may have standing.
By filoleg 2026-03-0922:23 I don't have much meaningful info to contribute to this, but it is interesting to observe how the rollout of the red light cams happens in different places, and how it eventually turns out.
IIRC there was a point in time roughly around ~2017 when it happened in Redmond WA (i.e., in the town that the Microsoft HQ is in). I might be off by a year or two, but it doesn't really change the overall point.
TLDR: in under 2 years, that whole red light cam initiative got canceled and reverted, because the local stats showed that it just made things more dangerous on the roads (by significantly increasing the rate of rear-ending accidents at traffic lights).
By horsawlarway 2026-03-0920:352 reply possibly, although I suspect the quote from above:
> Although nominally civil, traffic infraction proceedings retain every substantive hallmark of criminal prosecution...
Is going to matter here. A moving violation (ex: red light) is quite different from a non-moving violation (ex: parking) in how they're handled, and often how they're classified.
Ex - my in state, a moving violation is a criminal misdemeanor, while a non-moving violation is entirely civil.
By devman0 2026-03-0920:39 Idk how Florida handles it but several states citations issued by red light cameras and those issued by officers are handled entirely differently for the exact reason you mention. Camera citations are entirely civil, you don't get points against your license. If a cop issues the ticket it does become a misdemeanor moving violation.
there is no state where a moving violation is criminal misdemeanor. some moving violations may be CM but there are myriad of moving violations whose class/degree is not CM. CM is serious class/degree that if you are charged with it you better get yourself an attorney.
By tsimionescu 2026-03-0921:141 reply That quote is from the judge's decision: he considers that moving violations are quasi-criminal proceedings, and as such, that the protections for criminal prosecution apply, unlike in purely civil cases.
Where is the line drawn for criminal vs civil in nature?
It feels like any civil case brought against an individual by a government is quasi-criminal.
By JasonADrury 2026-03-107:091 reply Per the US Supreme Court in Hicks v. Feiock 485 U. S. 624 (1988):
>The substance of particular contempt proceedings determines whether they are civil or criminal, regardless of the label attached by the court conducting the proceedings.
>See Shillitani v. United States, 384 U. S. 364, 384 U. S. 368 -370 (1966); Penfield Co. v. SEC, 330 U. S. 585, 330 U. S. 590 (1947); Nye v. United States, 313 U. S. 33, 313 U. S. 42 -43 (1941); Lamb v. Cramer, 285 U. S. 217, 285 U. S. 220 -221 (1932); Gompers v. Bucks Stove & Range Co., 221 U. S. 418, 221 U. S. 441 -443 (1911).
>Civil contempt proceedings are primarily coercive; criminal contempt proceedings are punitive. As the Court explained in Gompers:
>The distinction between refusing to do an act commanded -remedied by imprisonment until the party performs the required act; and doing an act forbidden -punished by imprisonment for a definite term, is sound in principle and generally, if not universally, affords a test by which to determine the character of the punishment.
>221 U.S. at 221 U. S. 443. Failure to pay alimony is an example of the type of act cognizable in an action for civil contempt. Id. at 221 U. S. 442.
>Whether a particular contempt proceeding is civil or criminal can be inferred from objective features of the proceeding and the sanction imposed. The most important indication is whether the judgment inures to the benefit of another party to the proceeding. A fine payable to the complaining party and proportioned to the complainant's loss is compensatory and civil. United States v. Mine Workers, 330 U. S. 258, 330 U. S. 304 (1947). Because the compensatory purpose limits the amount of the fine, the contemnor is not exposed to a risk of punitive sanctions that would make criminal safeguards necessary. By contrast, a fixed fine payable to the court is punitive and criminal in character.
By giantg2 2026-03-1012:46 Yeah, and most civil cases that have the government acting as or representing the plaintiff against an individual have punitive outcomes - imprisonment for a set time for red flag violations, imprisonment for a set time for failure to pay child support, etc.
this is why going to court pretty much takes care of these tickets. of course, for a lot of people, going to court costs more money than paying the ticket so people pay.
disclaimer: I write software for court houses and am intimately familiar with the proceedings etc. in some jurisdictions these tickets will be outright dismissed and in others you may have to put up a bit of fight :)
"this is why going to court pretty much takes care of these tickets."
But what about things like red flag laws, child support (like the cited case law), etc?
By bdangubic 2026-03-1018:58 If you get a ticket in the mail, go to Court and contest it if you have time.
This is good suggestion in general even if you get a ticket by Officer because if Officer does not show up in Court (this happens more that you’d think) the ticket will be dismissed
By JumpCrisscross 2026-03-0920:351 reply Do parking tickets result in “a formal finding of guilt, and consequences tied to a driver’s record”?
By otterley 2026-03-0922:33 No.
By wifipunk 2026-03-0920:28 Almost, except parking tickets are still typically civil “owner-liability” citations tied to where the car is parked, while red-light violations are intended to target the driver’s conduct
By Tactical45 2026-03-0920:181 reply And speed light cameras
By atomicUpdate 2026-03-0920:50 What is a speed light camera?
No. Parking is leaving your possession somewhere and should apply to the registered owner. It is not illegal to own a car that someone else used to run a red light.
By jojobas 2026-03-105:03 Surely the framing is "we the people allow you to operate this (otherwise illegal) dangerous vehicle on public roads, on the condition that by default you are responsible for whatever transgressions".
By causal 2026-03-1014:56 Wow this sparked a lot of tedious debate. Just wanted to clarify that I'm talking about the law as written, not some high-level philosophical ideal.
By moduspol 2026-03-0920:25 I didn't leave my possession. I just owned a car that someone else left.
By hxorr 2026-03-0920:26 But is it illegal to own a car that someone else parked in the wrong pkace?
By spunker540 2026-03-0920:252 reply No. Running a red light is when your possession crosses an intersection while the light is red, and should apply to the registered owner.
By interestpiqued 2026-03-0920:433 reply If I lend a neighbor my kitchen knife and they murder someone with it, should I be liable?
By dghlsakjg 2026-03-102:59 You absolutely can be, especially if you knew, or should have known, that the knife was likely to be used illegally.
While a bit more extreme than your example, there have been multiple cases where the parents of a school shooter have been held responsible because they provided access to a weapon when there were warning signs.
On the less extreme end of the spectrum, this is the same reason why you have to pretend that you are buying a "water pipe for tobacco" and not a bong if you don't want to get kicked out of the headshop (in places where that is still illegal).
By gus_massa 2026-03-0921:41 3 year before the murder: You are probably fine, IANAL
10 minutes before the murder: Expect to get an accusation of accessory to murder, conspiracy to murder and a few additional tomes of the penal code. We all know you are innocent, but you should better find a good lawyer just in case instead of wasting your last free minutes arguing on the internet.
When subpoenaed, you'd be obligated to tell the court who you gave the knife to.
But if you'd like to tell the fall, I'm sure some prosecutors wouldn't dig too hard to find the guilty party.
By interestpiqued 2026-03-0921:13 It seems in this case they’re not asking, they’re accusing and saying I need to prove otherwise. I think that is substantively different
Edit: subpoena is not a criminal charge afaik is what I’m saying
By Muromec 2026-03-0920:29 Or is it?
By lnenad 2026-03-109:47 Who is leaving your possession is just as relevant as who is driving your possession?
If someone used the car without permission, they are guilty of theft.
If they used the car with your permission, you should either be responsible for what they do with it, or be able to point to the person who was using it.
By degamad 2026-03-0921:27 > If someone used the car without permission, they are guilty of theft.
Sure, but I still don't know who they are, so I can't give their name over for either investigating the theft or reassigning the speeding/red light/parking fine.
Except that requiring you to testify in order to absolve yourself of guilt violates your Fifth Amendment right not to testify in a trial against you. It is up to the government to prove you did something, not up to you to prove you didn’t.
You can not testify all you want, but you should still be on the hook for your vehicle getting tickets, just like you are on the hook for your vehicle accruing toll fees.
If your car was magically stolen and returned, and you have no idea that it happened, or who could have done this... Well, that's certainly an interesting legal argument that you could make to a judge. I doubt he'll believe you.
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-100:01 In the old days it certainly happened. Joyriding. Take someone's vehicle for a spin, put it back. Illegal but nowhere near as serious a penalty. Car security systems have gotten a lot better since then.
As someone who lives next to an intersection where cars routinely run red lights, this truly sucks and I hope it gets overturned. I understand the judge's reasoning, but running red lights is dangerous and we need much stricter enforcement.
If people routinely run the red light, it seems like an easy case to post an officer to do traffic stops and issue tickets. AFAIK, tickets issued by a sworn officer are broadly constitutional.
There's a literal police station at the intersection and they don't pay any attention at all.
By otterley 2026-03-0922:35 Are you bringing attention to this matter at your city council meetings? The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
By estimator7292 2026-03-1121:36 So your problem is with police not doing their job. Don't you think the more appropriate solution is to insist that cops do the job they're paid for instead of funneling local dollars out to some silicon valley scumsucker?
By rootusrootus 2026-03-0920:461 reply I people are routinely running a red for a particular intersection, it seems likely that there is a design problem with the intersection or the signaling. Improving safety would be fixing the underlying problem.
By tsimionescu 2026-03-0921:171 reply It's actually pretty common for some people to just run red lights when the road is really clear, especially at night. Best that could maybe be done would be to reduce visibility of cross traffic, so that the drivers can't tell from afar that the road they'll cross is clear - but this is likely to cause other kinds of risks.
By tootie 2026-03-0921:19 They do it when the road is busiest actually. Just following the bumper in front of them instead of looking up.
By sidewndr46 2026-03-1012:47 I went and read the section about Feiock. It's page 11 in the PDF for those interested. Section IV.B
It states "while these offense are labelled civil they remain fundamentally quasi-criminal in nature: punitive, adjudicative". Later it states "the State may not employ presumptions or burden-shifting devices that relieve it of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt"
The judge stops just an inch short of saying "this is a kangaroo court where guilt is stated rather than proven"
So is there an alternative or we'll just accept we can't punish bad driving?
Two paths:
Higher quality cameras equipped with facial recognition connected to a database to issue a ticket to the correct person (driver), or
Hire more traffic officers to sit at traffic intersections to catch red light offenders, which will scale in cost by the size of the city, so
Pick your poison
So this has been a thing in Germany since forever. The driver must pay the penalty, not the owner. So what they do is take a picture of the driver and send this to the owner. They have to either pay up, or state the name of the person who drove. If the driver claims that they did not drive and do not know the person on the picture (and if a cursory investigation fails, not sure how much time the authorities will invest in finding the driver), they will be told to record all rides with that vehicle from now on. If they fail to do that, I guess they get a greater penalty the next time, I'm not sure.
So yeah, in some cases you might get out of it by feigning ignorance, but it seems to be a sensible compromise between facial recognition and giving up.
Oh, that is a great third path! Thank you for that. I wonder how effective feigning ignorance will be when the officer can just compare the picture of you and your ID / IRL face.
By mr_mitm 2026-03-1110:14 Yeah it might only work in edge cases. Someone I know got caught speeding in his wifes car wearing a hat and sunglasses and looked to the side at the time, so he managed to get out of it somehow.
By giantg2 2026-03-0922:35 "under Feiock, such proceedings are sufficiently criminal in form and function to invoke the full protections of due process..."
This makes me question many existing civil things. Obviously child support, as in the case law. But also, things like red flag laws. It seems like any civil law that would apply criminal-type contemt penalties is unconstitutional.
By advisedwang 2026-03-0921:411 reply A speeding ticket is not a criminal charge. Criminal procedure and the rights for criminal defendants don't apply.
The court says that criminal rules should apply because points are at stake, while civil penalties are usually restricted to fines, but I don't buy that argument. We have plenty of non-money civil remedies. Code enforcement departments can require changes to property. Family courts can make all kinds of requirements. It's not outside of constitutional bounds for a traffic rule to result in forfeiting a license without criminal proceedings.
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-0923:261 reply >but I don't buy that argument. We have plenty of non-money civil remedies. Code enforcement departments can require changes to property. Family courts can make all kinds of requirements. It's not outside of constitutional bounds for a traffic rule to result in forfeiting a license without criminal proceedings.
All of which are an affront to people's rights.
The fact that we use a "special word" (civil) for the category of laws where we won't throw you straight in prison if you don't comply, we'll add the extra step of waiting for noncompliance and then charging someone with contempt doesn't fundamentally alter the relationship between the enforcers and the people, so why should the people have to put up with their rights being ignored in those cases?
By TulliusCicero 2026-03-105:101 reply > All of which are an affront to people's rights.
Rights are not unlimited.
You don't have some inherent human right to ignore building codes, or to retain full custody of your child in the event of a divorce.
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-1010:251 reply A reasonably median person doing reasonably median things (so like within a couple standard deviations) has a right to be free from low effort harassment by the state at the unilateral whim of its agents. In the US this is codified across several of the amendments in the bill of rights.
That means the building inspector can't just waltz into your home uninvited, ICE can't kick in your door because your maid is brown and the government can't just put up cameras and start dragnet fining people for rules that only really exist on paper and are used to make it procedurally easier to go after behavior that's bad for subjective reasons.
Second, the fact that legislative bodies may pass and enforcers may enforce stuff that violates people's rights (rental inspections and civil asset forfeiture) come to mind because the size of the harm and the manner in which it is targeted keeps it below the "get everyone pissed off" level doesn't make it not a violation of people's rights. Funny you mention building code. The manner in which building (zoning really, since building code is basically the public adoption of 3rd party standards via the zoning code) code is written and enforces is complete dogshit and would not hold up to rigorous scrutiny (and generally does not, in the incredibly rare occasion is sees it), but between the fact that it's cheaper to comply and that the worse abuses are generally targeted at exactly the kind of people who no judge will have sympathy for (much like civil asset forfeiture was initially) mean the general population is not too up in arms about it since it's
Now, before you put words in my mouth as the kind of people who say things like "rights are not unlimited" are in my observation very apt to do, I'm not saying don't have building code. I'm saying don't violate people's rights to have it, or anything else. It's nowhere near enforced to the letter anyway so walking the actual letters back to match what can be enforced without violating people's rights should be no big deal. And the same is goes for like red light cameras.
By TulliusCicero 2026-03-1020:35 You're being very vague here. If you agree that rights are not unlimited and it's okay to have common sense property restrictions like building codes, then what's the fundamental problem with red light cameras? What is your actual objection here?
> the government can't just put up cameras and start dragnet fining people for rules that only really exist on paper
The hell? Do you think "don't run red lights" is a rule that "only exists on paper"? You realize that if a cop sees you run a red light, they're definitely pulling you over, right?
By throwawayffffas 2026-03-109:46 The judge is right, of course the solution is not to ban the cameras, but to place them in a position that will capture the driver.
By nashashmi 2026-03-1011:48 If the core of the reasoning is the fines and penalties then surely the remedy is to temper the punishment to just fees that need to be fulfilled upon renewal or registration.
By joshuamorton 2026-03-1016:321 reply Can someone link the order, I've searched heavily for it and it's not linked by an of the articles or findable easily.
By fusslo 2026-03-1018:08
By kakacik 2026-03-108:04 Lol most of radars become mainly revenue stream, regardless of country or continent. Even mighty orderly Switzerland has some of that shit and its growing.
Where I live, there is one nasty radar placed so that people have to break rather hard, when leaving town as in few meters before end sign, on a steeply downhill slope, when there is just straight empty road ahead. Those who don't know get flashed frequently. There is no pedestrian crossing, no buildings, just empty fields. Locals complained and municipality said - sorry, we know, but its generating too much revenue and municipality needs that cash and became dependent on that. Basically FU. I know about few others in either Switzerland or France which have very nasty locations, in order to trap as many as possible, in places with 0 actual risk to anybody.
They also love putting temporary radars in some train underpasses which also go steeply down, so its trivial go few kms over the limit if you don't constantly brake and ie actually watch traffic around. Since they are well hidden and people see them at last moment and slam brakes hard, it properly increases risks of accidents, especially with mixture of cyclists or scooters/motorbikes. But that doesn't seem the priority anymore.
I am not saying they don't make sense in some places especially around pedestrian crossings, but its trivial to get 'addicted' to steady cash flow and then friction to change situation is maximal. Thats the point where it stops its primary purpose and becomes self-serving bureaucracy self-feeding loop.
By embedding-shape 2026-03-0917:4315 reply Seems the fact that it was a "red light camera" is completely irrelevant? The relevant part:
> The defendant argued the statute unconstitutionally requires the registered owner to prove they were not driving — instead of requiring the government to prove who was behind the wheel.
Bit like having to prove you weren't the one breaking in, rather than the police having to prove you were guilty.
In light of this, seems like a no-brainer no one could disagree with.
Not the same. They know the car was yours so, by extension, you should be aware of its whereabouts at any given moment. If it wasn't you driving, you know who. An illegal activity was committed using your tool and you know who did it. They have every right to question you. If you do not know, you testify as such, but then again you need to plausibly explain why was someone operating your car while you were not aware of it.
> In light of this, seems like a no-brainer no one could disagree with.
If someone shoots a person with your gun, you gonna say it wasn't you and expect them not to question any you further? Not very no-brainer, is it?
This is how it works in Poland and, I assume, most/all of EU and the rest of the world.
In America, we have the fifth amendment, and the right not to divulge any information whatsoever unless we're granted immunity.
It is enough to say absolutely nothing, and request the government to prove its case.
If someone shot a person with my gun, I would invoke the fifth amendment, and ask the government to prove who did it beyond a reasonable doubt.
By limagnolia 2026-03-0920:201 reply Actually, the fifth amendment only protects your right not to incriminate yourself. So you may be called upon to testify against your will against some one else (With some limited protections for spouses and such). However, if you were in fact the one driving, you can plead the fifth, and they cannot use that fact against you to prove it was in fact you driving- they have to prove that independently.
(EDIT: I should note that you also have a right to remain silent when questioned by the police- and since they won't know who to charge, there will likely not be a court case to call you to testify at)
By Drunk_Engineer 2026-03-0920:451 reply > they cannot use that fact against you to prove it was in fact you driving- they have to prove that independently.
5th amendment protections are much weaker for civil cases though.
By limagnolia 2026-03-101:09 Part of this judgement was that even though the law labels is as "civil" it looks and acts in fact like a criminal case, and so it doesn't matter what label they put on it, criminal standards apply.
By SoftTalker 2026-03-0918:031 reply In reality the way it would work is the prosecutor and police would use every bit of circumstantial evidence to construct a claim of motive, means, and opportunity. Then threaten you with a lengthy prison sentence if you are convicted.
You're not going to roll on whoever really did it (assuming you know), and trust your fate to a jury understanding presumption of innocence, and being convinced of "reasonable" doubt, without you saying a word in your own defense? Most people would not unless they had an iron-clad alibi, but if they did, they wouldn't be getting charged in the first place.
There's a big difference in when you break silence though. Strategically, much better to keep it until all the facts are known to your side. At the start, the police/government have the informational advantage. In other countries, even delaying (but eventually speaking) can allow a negative inference to be drawn. The right to silence is important even if you eventually speak.
The correct way to interact with the American legal system is never to talk at all unless you have a written immunity deal. Kids should learn to say "no questions/searches" and "slide the warrant under the door" from their parents.
By 0x3f 2026-03-0918:55 Pre-lawyer it's never a good idea to talk. Post-lawyer often not either. But there are some rare cases you might negotiate a disclosure through your lawyer. For example, if they're about to ransack your home or get you fired from your job and you've got a rock-solid alibi.
By KingMachiavelli 2026-03-0918:061 reply AFAIK Fith Amendment only protects against self-incrimination, you absolutely can be subpoenaed to testify against someone else and failing to produce truthful testimony is a crime.
You are correct, which is why that compulsion will be accompanied by immunity.
OK, but then you're testifying under oath and lying, because it was you who did it, after all?
> If someone shot a person with my gun, I would invoke the fifth amendment, and ask the government to prove who did it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Sounds nice on paper, but unless you have an absolutely airtight alibi that's a great way to end up in jail. Oh, you were alone at home all night? Well, your neighbor is pretty sure they heard you come home unusually late, and a witness saw someone who kinda-sorta looked like you run away from the crime site, and the victim was sorta-kinda involved in your social circles, and there's video of victim bumping into you a few weeks ago in a bar and you reacting in what could be interpreted as an aggressive way - and it is your gun...
Or you could tell them who you loaned the gun to. Your choice.
Sure, but that's a problem for my lawyer, not me.
And sounds like a great way to plead guilty to a lesser crime, but IANAL.
By pclmulqdq 2026-03-105:59 You missed the point. Your neighbor and the witness don't mean much in the absence of your testimony, but they point to the likelihood you're lying about everything you said on the stand because the detail of your location is suspect. If everything you say is uncorroborated otherwise, that statement might incriminate you on its own given those two witnesses.
By tsimionescu 2026-03-0921:20 Note that in civil cases, such as a traffic ticket, the fifth ammendment doesn't apply to the same extent, and the standard of evidence is typically not "beyond reasonable doubt", it is "a preponderance of the evidence".
Now, per the judge's ruling in this case, red light tickets are actually quasi-criminal, not purely civil, so the standards of criminal law might need to be applied.
By singleshot_ 2026-03-0918:101 reply How does the Fifth Amendment work in a civil context?
Is it appropriate to compare murder and running a red light given what you know about the civil implications of 5A?
By SoftTalker 2026-03-0918:20 It doesn't apply. The argument was that the red light violation was "quasi-criminal" and the judge agreed with that argument.
By joshuamorton 2026-03-0918:201 reply > It is enough to say absolutely nothing, and request the government to prove its case.
Only in criminal contexts. In civil contexts your silence can absolutely be an adverse inference. Usually these red-light cameras are civil penalties, not criminal (fines with no points). The judge here seems to be saying that these are "quasi-criminal" because, uhh, I guess there are penalties.
In some ways the government bringing civil charges against you is rather bullshitty and in many ways can be used against you in violation of your constitutional rights. Hence is the most likely reason the judge is calling it quasi-criminal.
By joshuamorton 2026-03-103:11 > In some ways the government bringing civil charges against you is rather bullshitty
I think there are circumstances where this is true, but I don't think it's true in the general sense. And I really don't think red light cameras, which are incredible for public safety and a really fair enforcement tool, are a good example of a civil rights violation.
By db48x 2026-03-0921:02 Right, in effect the Judge ruled that while the state _calls_ it a civil matter, they treat it basically the same as any other criminal matter and therefore it is in fact a criminal matter. As we all know, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
You don't need to explain anything to the government, that's why we have the 5th amendment. It is the government's job to bring charges against you and prove them beyond reasonable doubt. The government is right to investigate and ask questions to accomplish that and I am right to refuse to answer anything.
It's basically "innocent until proven guilty". Red light cameras turn that assumption around since if your car gets ticketed it is assumed you are "guilty until proven innocent".
By SoftTalker 2026-03-0918:123 reply I think the argument is generally: nobody has a right to drive a car, it's something we permit by issuing a license and other regulations. One of the conditions is that the owner of a vehicle is ultimately responsible for it.
The judge in this case disagreed, because the red light infraction was not a simple civil fine but quasi-criminal, e.g. points on drivers license, possibly resulting in suspension, etc.
By hrimfaxi 2026-03-0918:44 You can own a car and not drive it. It can be stolen from you, anything.
The structure of this whole thing is to avoid having to do an actual investigation. They could subpoena the car owner's phone records for instance. Instead they choose to hide behind bureaucracy and offer you an off ramp in the form of a lower payment to make it all go away.
By pixl97 2026-03-0919:49 If the owner is who is responsible for it, then make the ticket to the car and not an individual. State was attempting to play it both ways to tip the outcome in the states favor.
By youarentrightjr 2026-03-0919:512 reply > I think the argument is generally: nobody has a right to drive a car, it's something we permit by issuing a license and other regulations. One of the conditions is that the owner of a vehicle is ultimately responsible for it.
Do you know you can be licensed to drive a vehicle without owning one, and similarly, own one without being licensed to drive it?
Why would the owner of the property be responsible for someone else's actions with that property?
By Symbiote 2026-03-0920:03 Because they bought the most dangerous tool we have in common use, and society decided to make the law.
The owner isn't responsible for the drivers actions, but they are required to name the driver. (Or declare the car stolen etc.)
(At least in much of Europe.)
By tcmart14 2026-03-0920:36 I would say they could be, but its needs to under strict circumstances. Easiest is with guns, I loan you my gun knowing your going to go and use it to commit a crime, but that is covered under being an accessory. With cars, the only situation I can think of is if you loaned your car to someone you knew was drunk and was going to drive. Or you loaned me the car knowing I was going to use it as a get away vehicle in a bank robbery. But I assume the second case would also be covered under being an accessory to the crime.
But for the purposes of traffic tickets, yea, its ridiculous. It also has a lot of faults. I got a traffic ticket from a red light camera for a car I owned when I was stationed in California. The ticket came to me in Oregon 5 years AFTER I traded that vehicle in (I traded it in right before moving to Oregon) and the traffic cam ticket was from Texas, a state I've never driven a vehicle in. My only presence in Texas has been being in the airport in Dallas. The ticket was also for a year prior to when I received it. So I hadn't owned it in 4 years when it ran a red light in Texas.
> You don't need to explain anything to the government, that's why we have the 5th amendment.
As someone else said, this only works against self-incrimination? If you say it wasn't you then you need to testify or get prosecuted?
First, you have the right to say nothing at all; there is no requirement to incriminate someone else to protect yourself.
Second, you can still generally invoke the 5th amendment during testimony even if you already claimed someone else did it. You aren't under oath until said testimony, so it still protects against you having to choose between committing perjury or self-incrimination, and doing so cannot be used as evidence of either.
By IncreasePosts 2026-03-0919:442 reply No, you don't always have the right to say nothing at all. Courts can compel testimony and punish you if you don't.
And you plead the 5th after going under oath. And you can't just plead the 5th to any question. If the prosection puts you under oath and asks you your name, you can't plead the 5th to that
By brigade 2026-03-0920:27 That's why I said generally - once testimony is compelled, it can no longer be used against you. And the definite exception for compelling your name is if the government already believes that you committed a crime and is trying to figure out who you are, and you cannot articulate specifically why your name could be incriminating.
5th amendment protections can include questions of identity, if the question of identity is relevant for incrimination. Like, if the government has a warrant for "Joe Smith", you're not required to testify whether that's you. It's usually a waste of time since could just prove it with the non-testimonial evidence that lead to your arrest, but the protection does exist.
By mothballed 2026-03-0918:201 reply The 5th amendment with regard to self-incrimination only applies to criminal cases. When I represented myself in court for a speeding ticket the judge threatened me under pain of contempt that I had to testify against myself.
Most camera tickets are either civil moving, or civil non-moving. Civil moving are against a person and civil non-moving are against the vehicle. Neither of which case does 5th amendment protect you from incriminating yourself, and neither of which does it require prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
By satvikpendem 2026-03-0920:23 Read the ruling. The judge says red light camera cases are quasi-criminal in the way they are handled even if nominally civil and thus can be subject to constitutional requirements including the protection of the 5th amendment.
Please don't project the laws and norms of Poland onto the US.
The US is a very big place. And in this place, we have fifty (!) different states. That's fifty different sets of rules relating to owning and driving cars -- nearly twice as many as the EU has member nations.
A Florida judge might decide that red light camera tickets are unconstitutional, while an Arizona judge might decide that they're completely OK. These two very different rulings can co-exist, without conflict, potentially forever.
Each state doing their own thing independently of the others is just how we roll here.
A sane and rational person might reasonably conclude that this situation is literally insane -- and they may be right! -- but it is this way anyway.
(And it is this way by design.)
By sejje 2026-03-0922:06 It's a bit like the EU, in that way.
I don't believe the founders intended as much federal oversight as we currently have. It was supposed to be self-governing states with a few exceptions. So much of the constitution is to limit the feds.
By db48x 2026-03-0917:54 Sure, that would be sufficient probable cause for police to ask questions. But it’s not sufficient evidence on which to write a ticket because we specifically wrote into our Constitution that the police must know and be able to prove who the guilty party is _before_ they write the ticket (or make an arrest, in the case of more serious crimes). Poland doesn’t protect its citizens to the same degree, so what is acceptable there is not acceptable here.
By brigade 2026-03-0918:06 Most of the world also doesn't have the same degree of protections against self-incrimination that the 5th amendment provides. If someone shot a person with my gun, while the police can obviously ask questions, in the US I have the right to not answer and force them to prove beyond a reasonable doubt who fired it.
> If it wasn't you driving, you know who
That's not necessarily true. What if it's a shared car in your family and you weren't home to see who took it?
This comment is the tech equivalent to "falsehoods programmers believe about <thing>"... real life does not fit into such neat boxes.
Then you pay the ticket yourself or ask the family who did it so they can do it. This is normal across the world and really isn't a stretch to expect vehicle owners to figure out who's been driving dangerously with their car.
> This is normal across the world
I'm not arguing it isn't, but the thought exercise is: does it make sense for the government to take people's money if the accused can't prove it wasn't them driving the car based on a police accusation (also with the threat of jail time if you don't pay)?
I don't think that's "normal", personally.
By multjoy 2026-03-0919:41 No, because in a functioning legislature the offence would be something like 'failing to disclose details', in the same way that refusing to participate in a DUI breath/blood draw would be a discrete offence.
The photo will show the driver. Presumably, you recognize your partner and/or your children.
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-100:05 Twins.
Four people in my family drive my car. I'm supposed to track that? sure.
The standard for this in the UK is that you should make a reasonable effort to work out who was driving.
e.g. checking your calendar/diary, looking through receipts or bank statements to work out where you likely were.
There's also a requirement that a request for information is sent within 14 days for minor incidents like speeding or red light violations, so it's not like you have to work out who was driving on a Tuesday morning three years ago.
By quickthrowman 2026-03-0920:091 reply That’s not how it works in the United States. I was driving my (female) partner’s car and received a citation. I gave the cop my license but he pulled the owner’s (my female partner) driving record using her vehicle’s license plate (is what I’m guessing happened) and issued her the citation instead of me. I was very excited since this meant I was going to get away without a citation.
I gave her the citation and she called the cop who issued the citation and asked him who was driving at the time. He answered that a man was driving, and she told him he issued the citation to her, a woman. Her first name is one letter away from a male first name, so I’m guessing the cop saw it and assumed it was me and not her.
He got frustrated and told her to go ahead and rip the citation up since he wrote it to the wrong driver, she told him she’d show up to court and the judge would instantly dismiss the ticket due to the officer pulling over a man and issuing the citation to a woman, so he canceled it. He didn’t want to look like a complete fool in front of a judge.
Not once did he ask who was actually driving because he knows she is never going to tell him and he can’t force her to reveal that it was me.
Why not just drive under the speed limit and sober instead of giggling about avoiding penalties while endangering us all?
Note that not once did you mention that you were innocent.
By happyopossum 2026-03-0921:13 > and sober
Why would you presume GP was drunk?
Also, it's completely common and safe to drive slightly over the speed limit in some circumstances, and in many parts of the US it's exceedingly rare for people to drive below the speed limit as you suggest. In many places the tickets are essentially written more for not seeing the cop and slowing down than for actually doing 78 in a 65.
By quickthrowman 2026-03-1017:151 reply I was not drunk, I haven’t had a drink in over 10 years and I’ve never driven drunk.
I did not say I was innocent of the violation because I was not innocent, I never claimed to be.
Exactly, that's why I'm saying, why are you cheering about getting off on a technicality?
By quickthrowman 2026-03-1112:54 Because I didn’t have to pay a fine and my insurance rates didn’t go up. If you’re trying to make me feel guilty, it’s not going to work.
Your car, your problem. Either get someone to fess up, or take responsibility yourself and stop loaning it out.
There really is no difference between "who drove through a red light" and "who scratched the bumper while parking" here - how do you currently solve the latter one?
By throwway120385 2026-03-0920:46 I know you'd like it to work that way, but it doesn't in most jurisdictions in the US.
By rootusrootus 2026-03-0920:481 reply > how do you currently solve the latter one?
Same as parking enforcement. Goes against the car, not an individual. So the financial responsibility will be assigned, but no punishment.
By eweise 2026-03-105:17 Does the car get points on its record?
By HDThoreaun 2026-03-0918:171 reply Except no, that is not how it works. People get moving violation tickets, not cars.
This is exactly how it works in plenty of countries, actually! The US is the outlier here. In practice people have zero trouble figuring out which family member was driving - just like they have no trouble getting a kid to fess up to scratching the bumper while backing up into their own garage.
By throwway120385 2026-03-0920:471 reply The burden is on you to explain why the US should do things the way other countries do. What's better for everyone about that? Why should we change our notion of justice to make you feel better about it?
By philipwhiuk 2026-03-0921:021 reply > The burden is on you to explain why the US should do things the way other countries do. What's better for everyone about that?
In short: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/19...
By throwway120385 2026-03-1014:08 What proportion of road deaths are due to people running red lights versus just driving too fast for conditions, or being impaired at the wheel, or any number of things that these cameras don't enforce?
By JasonADrury 2026-03-107:22 > They know the car was yours so, by extension, you should be aware of its whereabouts at any given moment.
This is an absurd assumption. I own many cars. Often, I'll borrow a car to a friend, I'm generally totally OK if they borrow it to other people. I don't care, and should not have to care, who those people are.
Also, for what it's worth, the government has no idea who owns any of my cars. EU registration certificates are typically not proof of ownership (are they in any EU country? I suspect quite possibly not). At best a government might be able to figure out the registered keeper of my vehicle, but they're not going to know anything about who drives the car.
>If someone shoots a person with your gun, you gonna say it wasn't you and expect them not to question any you further? Not very no-brainer, is it?
If I say "it wasn't me" and refuse to answer further questions, I would expect them to stop asking me pretty quickly. Being excessively bothersome about asking further questions would be a clear violation of the ECHR.
By Nursie 2026-03-105:06 > They know the car was yours so, by extension, you should be aware of its whereabouts at any given moment.
People's spouses and kids drive their cars. I've lent cars to friends before. Unless you've got some kind of log book, you might not know (or even remember) who was driving at any given moment or location.
> you need to plausibly explain why was someone operating your car while you were not aware of it.
This is the point of the judgement, under US law it seems that you don't need to plausibly explain anything, the authorities need to be able to show who was driving as the penalty is pseudo-criminal.
> I assume, most/all of EU and the rest of the world.
Under UK law which is much less definite about the state proving who was driving, one must make a good faith effort to identify the driver. But my Father got into a situation that took months to resolve when a speeding ticket arrived. The photograph of the driver didn't capture the head and was otherwise too blurry to identify from the body. It's a month after the fact on a road they both drive down frequently, and they only have one car. Was it him or his wife driving? Nobody knows.
The primary vehicle owner is not allowed to just assume responsibility for the ticket, because the liability for the offence is with the specific driver. Giving the wrong information is an offence itself, because people have tried those sorts of tricks to (for example) give penalty points to their spouse and avoid a ban.
So ... what do you do?
It's possible to take such cases to court in the UK and receive a not-guilty verdict if the vehicle owner can show a good faith effort has been made to identify the driver but there is no reasonable way of doing so.
By AyyEye 2026-03-1012:08 > If it wasn't you driving, you know who
This is... Absolutely not true.
I had some family friends and their two (adult) sons come in (from Poland!) and loaned them my car for a week while they were driving around the states. They were all licensed and it could have been any one of them driving at any given point.
I've even been on road trips in my own car where figuring out the question "we got a ticket from nowhere, montana. Who was driving when we went through there?" Would be met with "that was over a month ago, I don't even know where that is much less who was driving then."
My husband and I and our kid take each other's cars for various reasons and trying to figure out who was driving on any given hour of the day over a month later when the ticket arrives in the mail would be an impossible task.
> you should be aware of its whereabouts at any given moment
Says who? If the car is mine, I am free to do with it whatever I like (of course, excepting criminal acts). I do not owe anybody an account of what I - or the care - did at any particular moment. If the car was used in the commission of a crime, it's up to the prosecution to prove I had something to do with it. If they think I know who did it - prove it and prosecute me under the law. You can't just prosecute because you think I should know, that's not how proper law works - otherwise every cop in the country would be 100% sure who they caught is the criminal - because why not, if it's enough for conviction, why work harder!
> If someone shoots a person with your gun, you gonna say it wasn't you and expect them not to question any you further?
They can question all they like, but to secure a criminal conviction, they must prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that I was the person who did it. Otherwise you get no conviction. If they strongly suspect I did it, they would find a proof - but the fact that I owned a gun is not that proof (for one, guns can be easily stolen, and frequently are).
By HarryHirsch 2026-03-0923:33 In Europe the law argues that cars are dangerous, and if you loan your car to a habitual bad driver, that's on you. You can either get the person who drove it to fess up, or the judge can fine you (because you lent out your car against better judgment) and impose a drivers log, so the circus doesn't happen again.
The arguing about having a constitutional right to drive bad boggles the mind, road deaths in the US are high, compared to civilized nations. Wikipedia states it's 14.2 deaths per 100000 inhbitants, that's between Sierra Leone (13.8) and Angola (15.0). For comparison, India has 12.6 traffic deaths per 100000 citizens and the worst country in Europe is Greece at 6.1.
The right metric is death per citizen, not per mile, because it's about the number of people who have lost a family member or friend.
When you get around exclusively on two wheels (motorcycle and bicycle) bad drivers are a direct safety threat. Even cagers ought to be careful about being permissive with red light running, side-on crashes are remarkably deadly for the one who got hit in the door because there is not much structural protection or space on the side of the vehicle.
But couldn't you then have the same argument for speeding tickets (or parking tickets)? Like, "I don't know who drove my car too fast or parked my car on the curb, so it's not my problem. The state should prove who did it.".
For the speeding ticket, if the police officer stops you, you'd get a ticket and would sign it, thus ensuring you were there. Or, if you refuse, the police officer would testify in court (if you would ask for a court hearing) that they saw you behind the wheel (and, likely now, you'd also be on bodycam). That would likely be enough evidence - which is why you probably don't want to go to court, because the judge would be annoyed at you for wasting everybody's time, and you'd probably get more severe punishment.
That said, I did at times get smaller fine and less severe consequences from a speeding ticket by just pretending I am going to go to court (I didn't really want to, I wanted smaller fine :) - because policemen do not like to waste time in court either - so they would agree, that if I do not try to deny I did it, and do not force thus them to go to court and testify, they would agree to less severe violation (while still costing me $$, just not as much as it could). That's totally a thing, at least in the US. The risk, of course, if you are an ass about it and piss off the police officer, they'd say to heck with it, I'll go to court, and you'd have to go to court too, and as per above, you'd get punished more severely. So, always be polite, and it will be to your benefit.
As for automated speeding tickets, I'm not a huge fan of it. Too many cases of this system being wrong or abusive.
I meant speeding cameras, where a system OCRs your license plate and you receive a fine after a month or even two months. Fine being monetary + points, depending on how fast you drove. Police officers measuring speed have become quite rare, at least here at my location (EU country). While speeding cameras are becoming quite common, especially in towns/cities and on the highways.
By smsm42 2026-03-1021:40 TBH, if those became legally invalid, I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep. There's a huge potential for abuse in these things, and their deterrent value is minimal. Especially in a heavily heterogenuos country like the US, where each municipality can have their own rules and their own courts. Sometimes these thing turn into literal highway robbery.
By satvikpendem 2026-03-0920:24 Yes, and that is likely what will happen based on this ruling too, for parking tickets as well.
By electronsoup 2026-03-0919:51 > but then again you need to plausibly explain why was someone operating your car while you were not aware of it.
There is no such requirement.
By stefan_ 2026-03-0918:06 You are missing a nuance. It is simply a separate offence (a misdemeanor) to not identify who was driving when the car was used to commit a violation.
But also traffic cameras here generally take frontal pictures, so typically the only way you can get away with claiming it wasn't you is if they are very lazy / not interested in investigating further.
By tsimionescu 2026-03-0920:321 reply > They have every right to question you.
Sure, but they have no right to issue you a ticket without proving you broke the law. Same as in the gun case: they have every right to question you, but they can't convict you for murder based solely on evidence that it was your gun that killed the victim.
A ticket (citation) is a promise to appear before a court, not a conviction of anything. Law enforcement can cite anyone with only reasonable suspicion than a crime or infraction has been committed.
By tsimionescu 2026-03-105:25 I may have used "ticket" in a far too imprecise way, that may get a bit too much into the weeds of terminology and specific laws in specific states for me.
By my understanding, though, this case wasn't about a citation to appear in court, it was about automatic issuance of a fine + points on the driver's license of the owner of a car filmed blowing past a red light. Of course, you can sue the government to contest the penalties, but unless you do, you are liable for even worse penalties if you don't pay.
By terminalshort 2026-03-0918:10 Of course they are going to question you further. But they still do have to prove it to convict you. If the prosecution provides no evidence that you were the shooter other than the fact that you were the owner of the gun, then you are going to get off.
By ratelimitsteve 2026-03-0919:33 > If it wasn't you driving, you know who.
I don't have to prove who was driving. I don't have to prove I wasn't the one driving. The state has to prove that I was the one driving.
>If someone shoots a person with your gun, you gonna say it wasn't you and expect them not to question any you further?
I don't expect them not to question me further and that's not what this is about. This is about whether your car running a red light is proof, in and of itself absent any other facts, that you ran a red light in your car.
>This is how it works in Poland
This is not how it works in the US
>I assume, most/all of EU and the rest of the world.
You assume incorrectly
By protocolture 2026-03-105:10 >They know the car was yours so, by extension, you should be aware of its whereabouts at any given moment.
Lol your "Tool" analogy breaks down here.
Its not the responsibility of the defendant to prove their innocence, no matter how you want to twist it.
> expect them not to question any you further
Wow. No one expects you to not be questioned, but for questioning to take place before punishment because duh.
Build a case, test it. Not issue fines based on an assumption.
By some_random 2026-03-0917:561 reply The relevant law here is US constitutional law, not Polish nor EU law.
By cromka 2026-03-0918:00 Did I say otherwise?
By openuntil3am 2026-03-0919:52 In Japan the driver's face needs to be clearly visible in the photo. At least that's what I've been told. I don't drive.
By circuit10 2026-03-0918:05 I think it's like this in the UK, you are required to either admit to it or inform the police who was driving at the time.
For speeding there's a website where you can view photos and a certificate showing the equipment was calibrated recently, and you can admit or nominate another driver (or you can do it via paper forms)
Speed camera tickets show up in the mail weeks after the fact. Say your entire family uses your car. You know who was driving the family car at 2pm on a random sunday five weeks ago? I'm guessing not...
By defrost 2026-03-106:40 I'm guessing many would recognise a family member or friend from the photograph of the person in the drivers seat though . . .
By garaetjjte 2026-03-0920:33 In Poland, ticket enforcement from speed cameras is about 50% (because if you don't accept it voluntarily, they need to file court case and burden of proof is on the government here, as with any other criminal case).
By stronglikedan 2026-03-0918:051 reply > but then again you need to plausibly explain why was someone operating your car while you were not aware of it.
Why? IMHO, I shouldn't have to. It's the police's job to make sure they have the right person.
By happosai 2026-03-104:37 Car is a deadly machine (especially big trucks and SUVs) and the owner of the death machine should know who they give their death machine.
By carlosjobim 2026-03-0920:03 > you should be aware of its whereabouts at any given moment.
Why? Americans liberated themselves from this kind of relationship with the government hundreds of years ago.
Even if I know who, why would I ever give that information to the court?
Let's say your friend borrow your car and drives through a red light. You don't have to tell the court that it was them, but as the car owner you'll be held responsible for what the car was used for if you don't.
It seems like that is not the case in Florida according to this judge.
By ratelimitsteve 2026-03-0921:341 reply it's not true anywhere in america, at the very least.
By tuckerman 2026-03-100:36 I agree that's likely true but I'm not sure if there are any jurisdictions finding things differently? I'm not aware of any rulings from appeals courts with broader jurisdiction but I imagine if they don't exist they will soon.
By ratelimitsteve 2026-03-0921:34 here's the thing about that: it's absolutely not true at all. once again, in the place where this ruling took place (and, therefore, the place we're talking about) the people who accuse you of a crime have to prove that it was definitely you that did it. an accusation doesn't put the burden of proof on you to prove that you didn't, or to find who actually did. this isn't a phoenix wright game, or an argument with your mom. if the state can't prove that it was you, then it wasn't.
By brewdad 2026-03-0918:24 Because you'll be paying the fine if you don't.
They have the right to question, but I don't have to testify to anything, that's what the fifth ammendment is for.
As usual, Europe doesn't care about internal consistency when it comes to rights. They just legislate (or rule) whatever 'works' for the current definition of 'works'.
> If someone shot a person with your gun, you gonna say it wasn't you and expect them not to question you further? Not very no-brainer, is it?
Nobody has said you can't be questioned.
> As usual, Europe doesn't care about internal consistency when it comes to rights.
Sure. And you advocate that in exchange in US you get havoc on the roads because anyone can say "it wasn't me speeding 50 miles over the limit, bite me"? Is that the freedom you want?
By wewtyflakes 2026-03-0923:20 Hard yes; I do absolutely do not want to live in a society that is held together with cameras instead of people. By all means please enforce the law, but it should be done by people in a court, not by some auto-citation by mail.
The US has a comparable per-mile road fatality rate. There's no 'havoc'.
No, it doesn't! It's 2 to 10 times more! But that's irrelevant; what we're talking about here is a hypothetical scenario where this gets challenged in Supreme Court and, as a result, police in US cannot assume fault in such cases.
> No, it doesn't! It's 2 to 10 times more!
It's literally not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
> Belgium 7.3
> Slovenia 7.0
> US 6.9
> France 5.8
Never mind all the other countries that do have presumption of guilt, which are also comparable in per-mile road deaths.
And the ones with presumption but which _are_ 10x worse.
Allowing the presumption is very clearly not well-correlated with safety.
You are conveniently leaving out some European countries, such as Norway being at 3.0 per 1B km.
You are also conveniently leaving it the per-capita figures, with US being at 14.2 per 100k while countries like Norway, Sweden, and Finland being at 2.x, and Europe as a while being at 6.7.
So sure, "10x more" might be an exaggeration, but "2x more" is fairly accurate and even a claim of "7x more" is arguable.
I haven't conveniently left out anything. I wrote my previous comments intentionally, and specified which statistic I was talking about. If you misread it, that's on you.
I used this statistic because yours is like saying the US is richer than Switzerland, if you don't divide by the number of people. Pretty irrelevant.
There is no point comparing a country that drives everywhere with a country that doesn't using a metric that doesn't account for this difference.
> There is no point comparing a country that drives everywhere with a country that doesn't
Unless the argument is that driving everywhere is a stupid and irresponsible way to operate a society.
By 0x3f 2026-03-0921:56 Perhaps but seems irrelevant to a discussion that's around the question of policy as it relates to people who are already driving.
You named the two European countries higher than the USA, and ignored the 12 that are lower.
By 0x3f 2026-03-0921:55 I presented the US' position in the list with the surrounding European countries, both higher and lower, to show that it sits in the cluster. It can be at the edge of the cluster, that's fine. The other person was claiming a 2-10x difference and, more importantly, blaming it on the 'havoc' that occurs without the presumption of guilt. The countries I listed have that presumption, and yet have comparable rates.
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-100:36 The problem with both of these numbers is that they are highly sensitive to how (city/suburban/rural, freeway/highway/byway) people drive.
By throwaheyy 2026-03-0917:563 reply It’s a very typically American opinion to argue that you don’t have to be personally responsible for your actions if the law legally allows you not to.
By arijun 2026-03-0918:04 When you say personally responsible, do you mean legal repercussions? Because, yes, that is definitionally what the law is. Or do you mean some extra-judicial responsibility? Because GP (and this whole chain, for the most part) is only talking about law.
By 0x3f 2026-03-0918:04 The state is so powerful that inviduals should be given such affordances, and should be allowed the put the state to strict proof.
Europe is a nonsense in this regard: you have rights, except all the special cases when you don't. You have a right to free speech, except for all the ways in which you don't. You have the right to silence, except when you don't.
Which is also true in the US, after all they restrict obscenity as a form of speech. It's just that they have much fewer exceptions.
By elteto 2026-03-0919:43 How very typical of non-Americans to misrepresent Americans!
By bluefirebrand 2026-03-0917:552 reply > If someone shot a person with your gun, you gonna say it wasn't you and expect them not to question you further
Running a red light is not remotely equivalent to shooting someone with a gun, get a grip
By Rapzid 2026-03-0918:09 In oral arguments the supreme court uses hypothetical questions with extreme examples to explore the limits and constitutionality of law.
Why shouldn't we?
OK, so now write a law that makes a distinction here. What do you end up with? EU law.
The EU does not write traffic legislation, it leaves that up to the individual states.
Unlike the US, the EU is a collection of fully sovereign countries.
By cromka 2026-03-0922:26 This was a mental shortcut, to exemplify EU vs US attitude in this case. I am from and live in one of EU countries, I am very well aware of that.
By NetMageSCW 2026-03-0922:23 “fully” is optimistic - being a member of the EU means giving up some sovereignty.
Florida must be using cheap cameras. My daughter got a red light ticket in Beverly Hills a couple of years ago. They mailed the ticket to her as the registered owner of the car, including the photographs from the cameras which showed that a) she entered the intersection on a red light, b) her car front and back showing the license plates and c) the face of the driver, establishing it was her. From her expression on the photograph you could tell she was saying "oh, shit!" She just paid it.
Same here; tickets always include the photo of the driver. If the photo is unclear or differs from the registered owner, tickets are easily dismissed.
However, I agree with Florida on this; the onus should be not be on the accused to prove innocence after a citation is issued. Feels like a 'call us to unsubscribe' time-wasting dark pattern.
By hunter2_ 2026-03-0923:07 If the law is such that the owner is guilty regardless of who was driving, but the owner can opt to reassign the fine to the driver if they have the willingness and the evidence to do so, then proving innocence isn't really what's happening if the driver opts to do it.
That said, if merely being the owner of a tool is sufficient to be guilty of whatever infraction someone else performs with said tool, that has 2 problems beyond the whole "proving your innocence" debate:
1. Why stop climbing up the chain at the current owner when you could keep climbing and say it's all the fault of the manufacturer? I jest, but this illustrates why, despite my first paragraph, it's indeed only sensible that the driver be at fault, so the government must prove who was driving.
2. Why treat cars differently from, say, weapons?
By californical 2026-03-0917:487 reply I see your point, but these are civil tickets rather than criminal charges. And since there’s already many laws and regulations around owning a car, such as registration… isn’t it trivial to say “you are responsible for a car that you register by default”
In the same way, if your car fails emissions tests, you can’t register it and it’s the responsibility of the owner to ensure that their car meets emissions standards.
By freediddy 2026-03-0917:54 If you read the article, you would see that issue addressed. The claim was that it wasn't civil, it was quasi-criminal which is why they had to follow due process.
By true_religion 2026-03-0917:511 reply But the risks that running a red light pose aren’t civil in nature, so it feels like a perversion to use civil infractions as an excuse to get sloppy with enforcement.
The alternative would be an actual criminal record because you misjudged a yellow light.
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-100:401 reply If the yellows are set correctly there should be very little of misjudging. You see yellow, if you can reasonably stop you do so. Judging only is an issue when you're going below the speed limit.
By wat10000 2026-03-1012:14 “If you can reasonably stop” needs to be judged and can be misjudged.
By joecool1029 2026-03-0917:59 Sort of. Basically you can fine the owner of the car and revoke the privileges of driving that car in a given state. Where it gets to be a problem is if the charge is against the 'driver' of the car and the state's not able to prove that. Normally, in courts we can face our adversary and cross-examine, etc. We hit this problem in NJ during the red light camera pilot program, I can remember a guy I worked with getting a ticket because his roommate borrowed a car and the front was hanging out a bit into the intersection.
Some other thoughts: An illegally parked car can be fined, impounded, booted. Car with outstanding parking tickets can also have all of the above. But typically the driver wouldn't see points or a moving violation for any of these offenses. For example: NYC you can get blocking the box tickets written by parking enforcement but they don't carry the weight of a moving violation like a police officer's ticket would. (and if you don't pay it, it's not the driving privilege that's suspended in the state, it's the car itself that would be targeted for booting/impounding, etc)
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-0917:561 reply >I see your point, but these are civil tickets rather than criminal charges.
Yeah that's what they said when ICE was unilaterally kicking in doors.
The way I see it anything that would prompt the government to use violence upon you without you taking action to escalate deserves the same level of protection for the accused as a "real" criminal matter.
Yes I'm aware this includes just about everything beyond library late fines and would break the system at least for awhile. Worth it. The government shouldn't be able to assess the same penalties (fines) and threaten the same enforcement actions (forfeiture of property, arrest for nonpayment, etc, etc) as they do in criminal matters and side step people's rights simply because they say it's civil. The rights and procedural protections are what they are not to prevent the application of a label, but to prevent abuse at the hands of the government.
By paulddraper 2026-03-0920:031 reply Criminal offenses are punishable by incarceration.
Civil offenses are not.
---
Mild speeding, no seatbelt, broken taillight are civil.
DUIs, reckless driving, hit-and-run are criminal.
All vehicular offenses, but different punishments.
---
Unauthorized immigration to the US is NOT punishable by incarceration. (It can result in deportation to the nation of origin.)
By cucumber3732842 2026-03-0921:591 reply >Criminal offenses are punishable by incarceration.
And what happens if you don't pay civil (or criminal) fines? A bench warrant gets issued and you get arrested. And if you get a contempt charge in all this guess where you can go?
The only "real difference" between a criminal offense where they "can" jail you but usually just fine you is procedural.
I would rather catch a bullshit DUI than have a local building commissioner coming after me for some violation. They're both $10k problems, but with one of them you have "real rights"
>Unauthorized immigration to the US is NOT punishable by incarceration.
The problem wasn't what the statutory punishment is or isn't.
The problem was the unilateral nature of it. Hence all the hoopla over warrant types, sloppy behavior, etc.
By paulddraper 2026-03-1022:01 > The only "real difference" between a criminal offense where they "can" jail you but usually just fine you is procedural.
While you can be jailed for disobeying a court order, it's self-imposed arrest. You are released upon compliance.
That is different from incarceration, for which you continue to serve the sentence even when the original crime is not repeated.
By bluefirebrand 2026-03-0917:543 reply No more lending your car to a friend in need, no more letting your children learn to drive on your car or borrow it ever. Families must now own and insure a car for every individual driver because we can't be bothered to find robust solutions for traffic enforcement
Shift the problem onto individuals, make it a burden for the public. Typical HN attitude
By californical 2026-03-0920:22 Driving cars is a dangerous activity that deserves higher levels of accountability and responsibility.
It is commonplace to drive, but has high potential for danger and death. It seems ok to me to have a level of care required for owning a vehicle, and that includes being mindful of who you share your vehicle with.
Same thing with guns - if you blindly lend a gun to an acquaintance and they shoot a school, you will absolutely be charged with some crimes, either accessory to murder or manslaughter, where you have to prove that you weren’t being negligent by giving it to them. Guns are dangerous and owning them bears a higher level of responsibility to the owner.
Vehicles kill more people, they also deserve responsibility to own. If somebody breaks laws with your vehicle, it’s your responsibility by default unless you prove otherwise.
By smelendez 2026-03-0918:00 I mean, if your kid or friend gets a parking ticket in your car you probably already pay it and collect from them.
It doesn’t seem that different to extend this to camera tickets.
Or you could ask your friends who borrow your car not to be dipshits who run red lights. If you get a ticket for your teen running a red light, you can have your teen pay for it. Might be a good learning lesson.
But the reason for the ruling is that if your teen runs a red, YOU get points on your license.
Not if the teen takes responsibility. So don't loan out your car to people who aren't willing to take responsibility for their actions. Surely that's not a massive burden?
By californical 2026-03-0921:131 reply Yes, vehicle ownership is a level of responsibility, I believe it is just to be accountable for what happens with it.
By iamnothere 2026-03-0922:221 reply This is unjust BS and discriminates against poor families.
Using this line of thinking, it will be a short time until you’re responsible for what a criminal does with your stolen vehicle; after all, you failed to secure it.
I hope you get exactly what you’re asking for, and all the implications thereof (but in a state far from me). I feel certain you won’t enjoy it.
By californical 2026-03-104:381 reply Obviously someone stealing a vehicle is different, as long as you’re reasonable about it. Leaving an unlocked car with keys in the ignition outside of a bank being robbed is different from someone breaking the window and spoofing your fob, and both of those are different from willingly giving the vehicle to someone.
Also I mentioned criminal vs civil penalties being treated differently - I don’t believe the same scenarios apply to both. AND if you can prove that you lent a car to someone who got you a speeding ticket, then it’s on them - just that the owner of the car is responsible by default.
I hate these arguments that doing anything to restrict the deadliest machines in history is impossible because it discriminates against the poor. It doesn’t. But having a society where driving is the only option does, so I am all in favor of alternatives. But I also think that we should improve safety for cars when possible as well
By bluefirebrand 2026-03-105:531 reply > Obviously someone stealing a vehicle is different
But someone borrowing it with permission isn't?
By californical 2026-03-1120:44 Yes - if you’ve intentionally given them access, then it is your job to ensure they use it responsibly
Yeah, keeping this would be a dangerous precedent. If the state can presume you're guilty in a traffic case, why not extend it to other cases? Stuff like that is routinely used in legal arguments, "we are doing X so why can't we do Y which is essentially the same?" So say they'd go for "we have your phone located within the vicinity of where murder is committed, now prove you're not a murderer!" or "your license place was tagged next to the store that was robbed, now prove you didn't rob the store!"
And yes, very likely some people would abuse it to get out of traffic tickets. I'd rather have that than constitutional due process protections eroded. We're not doing super-great on that anyway, we don't need to do worse, and if some scoundrel occasionally not paying traffic ticket is a price we have to pay to avoid that, I am fine with it.
By LorenPechtel 2026-03-100:511 reply Yup. Camel's noses should always be shot. Otherwise they creep in more and more.
Some examples that come to mind:
Look how the exception for searches at border crossings has expanded.
The use of actions against licenses for behavior that has nothing to do with the license.
The use of permits to get companies to do things only marginally related to the purpose of the permit.
The encouragement of universities to expel those accused of criminal acts--just because the punishment isn't jail should not mean the state can hand it off to a kangaroo court.
Pressuring financial companies to cut ties with disliked things. (For example, getting Steam to remove games with any whiff of incest. Either declare them illegal or don't take action against them!)
By smsm42 2026-03-1021:43 You can add using banks as a leverage to suppress legal but "undesirable" activities - see Operation Choke Point.
If it's their vehicle and the vehicle wasn't stolen, the owner should know who was driving it. Courts do compel people to testify sometimes (when it is not self-incriminating).
They are not required to know who is driving their registered vehicle at all times, just that anyone that is allowed to drive it has a license.
What are some scenarios where a vehicle owner knows that the vehicle is being driven by someone with a license, but not who that person is?
By riquito 2026-03-0919:46 Happens all the time. You and your spouse do the same or similar route (e.g. bring child to school) and a month later you get a ticket. Who was driving that day?
By yjftsjthsd-h 2026-03-0918:151 reply You have one spouse and several children, and all of them have a license and are allowed to use the car?
Your court date will be weeks after receiving the citation in the mail. Most families talk once in a while.
By HDThoreaun 2026-03-0919:58 The state is constitutionally unable to force you to testify against yourself because the judge ruled these tickets are quasi criminal
By tacticalturtle 2026-03-0917:552 reply The relevant part is that the judge declared traffic ticket proceedings “quasi criminal”:
> In the order, the court found that red-light camera cases, although labeled as civil infractions, function as “quasi-criminal” proceedings because they can result in monetary penalties, a formal finding of guilt, and consequences tied to a driver’s record.
Which seems to just relabel any fine from the government as a criminal matter?
IMO when you register the vehicle for the right to drive on public roads, you are entering into an agreement that you will be responsible for following the rules of the road, and for lending the car to people who also do so.
Similarly, if I register a firearm legally, and then lend it out to anyone who asks, regardless of whether they follow the law, I don’t think it would be crazy to hold me financially responsible if a shooting happens with my gun.
Seems untenable because I can just lie to you about my intended use. I borrow your hammer to build a cabin. Oops, I actually used it to murder people. Enjoy the millions in damages.
By bootlooped 2026-03-0919:511 reply The justice system can generally deal with gray areas like this. For example the parents of school shooters are usually not held liable for the crimes their kids commit. It depends on a lot of variables.
More states are enacting laws that directly charge the parents in these cases.
By GuinansEyebrows 2026-03-0920:231 reply example of a very recent case: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/04/us/colin-gray-verdict-mass-sh...
By 0x3f 2026-03-0922:05 Seems more like jury nullification than new legislation, in this particular case
By pixl97 2026-03-0919:59 >I don’t think it would be crazy to hold me financially responsible if a shooting happens with my gun.
States have had to write laws for this to be a criminal matter. Before then it was a civil matter, but it was individuals against individuals and not state against individuals.
>Which seems to just relabel any fine from the government as a criminal matter?
It wasn't exactly about the fine, but points on a license I believe.
By jonahhorowitz 2026-03-0918:20 In California at least (I'm not sure about Florida law), you can go to court and state "the state hasn't proved that I was the driver," and if the photos are too blurry to show who the driver was, the state loses. You don't have to tell them who the driver was, just show that they don't have enough evidence that it was you. I believe this approach is more consistent with the constitution.[1]
[1]:https://caticketking.com/help-center/photo-red-light-help/ph...
By ApolloFortyNine 2026-03-0919:501 reply The logic is fine, but hit and runs just became a lot easier to get away with then no? Especially with tinted windows being so prevalent you very well might not even be able to give a description at all of the driver, and they can just later say they found their car like that.
Probably a lot of other issues arise from that. If your car gets towed for being illegally parked, what if you just say you didn't park it there? Seems like a similar violation to a red light ticket.
By dolphinscorpion 2026-03-0919:55 Hit and run is different; the car is insured, regardless of the driver. If criminal, they will interview to see if the owner was driving, who else had access to the car, and so on.
By mikkupikku 2026-03-0918:092 reply I don't see why the government should have to prove who was driving to issue a ticket, it's not like they have to prove who parked the car to issue a traffic ticket.
By Ekaros 2026-03-0919:52 In Finland there is fun thing on that. There is both tickets by municipality where the ticket goes to keeper. But as private parking fines are contractual violations they need to track down or at least reasonably prove the person who parked...
Still, seems to me that it is reasonable to prove who did such violation. Maybe photo could identify person. Or maybe other data could be requested like phone location data. Doesn't seem unreasonable or high hurdle. Probably not cost effective in every case.
By SoftTalker 2026-03-0918:251 reply Parking tickets don't go on your driving record. They are just a tax on parking improperly.
By mikkupikku 2026-03-0919:291 reply I thought the same was true of automated red light and speeding tickets too.
By pixl97 2026-03-0920:01 No, they are considered moving infractions in many states.
By dangood 2026-03-0918:13 This is such a strange argument, as any reasonable person should know or be able to find out who was driving their car at a specific point in time. But also easy to solve such absurd positions - Change the law to say the owner is responsible for any and all infractions and loses the right to ride and own a car for such infractions unless they identify another driver. But I don't see who wins in this scenario, it is much more logical and fair to go in with the aim to penalise the driver, and for this purpose ask the owner to confirm the driver.
> seems like a no-brainer no one could disagree with.
I disagree completely. This is how speed and red light cameras operate in my country. If you weren't the one driving, it's straight forward to show that. The other party can admit to the offence or you can present evidence including the camera itself. The burden is low. Camera infractions do not carry license demerit points because of this ongerent uncertainty.
What's the alternative? Use even more valuable police resources to issue these tickets? Or just not penalize dangerous infractions?
By NetMageSCW 2026-03-0922:29 >Or just not penalize dangerous infractions?
Perhaps needing to show these are dangerous infractions should come first?
By pixl97 2026-03-0920:03 I mean this entire case was the state attempting to have its case and eat it too.
These US states considered them moving infractions with points. Now the state must adjust by removing points or doing its due diligence.
By paulddraper 2026-03-0920:00 The article title is: "Judge dismisses red-light camera ticket, rules law is unconstitutional"
Which is better than the HN title.
By maratc 2026-03-0918:07 I think that administrative charges do not need to clear the "beyond a reasonable doubt" bar -- that is reserved for criminal cases only. (So indeed, breaking in or killing.)
"Preponderance of the Evidence" which is probably used for traffic cases means only "more likely than not" (or about 51% certainty).
By socalgal2 2026-03-0920:22 There are plenty of laws where you do nothing and are still considered responsible.
For one, that was Florida. In California there's the "Permissive Use" rule which means you are at least partially responsible for who you lend your car to. If they get in an accident, you can be held partially liable.
There's also "Negligent Entrustment" if it can be proved you knowingly loaned your car or gun to someone intoxicated, unlicensed, etc...
Businesses are generally supposed to take responsibility for their employees. That might sound obvious if the business is FAANG but it's far less obvious to a single person coffee-shop or flower stand who hires their first employee who then spills hot coffee on a customer.
Parents are liable for their kids on many (most?) cases
I think another is where a someone goes to bar, drinks too much, the bartender gets charged.
Rather than just fight the cameras, what solution would you suggest? Just saying "more officer enforcement" doesn't seem valid as budgets are shrinking, applicants are shrinking, and people are dying from reckless drivers.
Steve Lehto has an analysis of the opinion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VinCGmdj-jQ
One interesting point is that the Judge also spent some ink criticizing the law because paying the ticket removes the ticket from your driving record. This means that habitual bad drivers can get away with the same infractions over and over again as long as they pay the fines quickly. This bypasses the State’s points system that was designed to punish repeat offenders by taking away their license.
I wonder how other state’s red–light camera laws hold up? Do they have the same flaws or are they written better?
By reactordev 2026-03-0917:52 Same flaws. It was all designed to make up for budget cuts and stayed when it made a dent. Once they got used to the money from it, they got complacent with how effective it actually was. This is Law Enforcement in America in a nut shell. They only care when they can’t make their pension plan payments. Rather than go out there and police, they have staffing shortages and rely on the private sector to provide services that allow them to “police” from afar or by an algorithm.
By maest 2026-03-0918:13 Loosely related:
There is a driver in NYC who gets almost 300 speeding tickets per year. They've paid their fines, so they're allowed to keep driving. Apparently, since the fines come from speed camera, they can't revoke their license.
https://www.jalopnik.com/1836395/worst-driver-in-ny-563-tick...
In Australia you will get a fine and demerit points for speeding or for running through a red light. The points don't go away even if you pay the fine. If you go through a year without infractions, one point will be taken off. I think that's a fair system. More details here [https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/demerit...] and here [https://www.primelawyers.com.au/traffic-law/speeding-offence...]
Coming to the part about issuing fines to the registered owner, you can nominate a different driver online here, when replying to the fine. The person nominated need to accept this as well before it is taken off the person to whom the vehicle is registered to.
Right, many other countries let you point the finger at someone else. The problem is that in the US the government is not legally allowed to even issue a ticket unless they can prove that the person they are prosecuting is the guilty party. Merely being the owner of the car is not enough.
Being the registered owner makes the person responsible. The owner can state it being stolen, or driven by someone else as valid reasons
Right. I am completely aware that it works that way in many parts of the world, but in the United States of America it is unconstitutional _unless_ the state law makes it a completely civil infraction that is settled using a fine only. No points, no suspensions, no police interaction at all. Under Florida’s laws it is explicitly a misdemeanor for the _driver_ of a car to run a red light, so it is unconstitutional for a police officer or court to assume without proof that the _owner_ of the car was driving at the time the red–light camera took a photograph of the car.
I understand that this blows people’s mind. People in other parts of the world tend to think that they are just as protected from their government as we are in the USA, but the truth is that in practice their governments get away with a lot of crap that doesn’t fly over here. Sometimes our government gets away with some crap for a time, until the courts catch up. Sometimes the courts even make obviously wrong rulings. Judges are only human, so that is to be expected. But on the whole it’s a pretty good system.
By chupchap 2026-03-1121:42 > People in other parts of the world tend to think that they are just as protected from their government as we are in the USA
No one in a modern democratic country thinks this way. US is not a benchmark in any form other than grandstanding about rights. Government snooping and overreach is as much a problem in US compared to other countries.
The difference is that something as simple as a traffic rule violation is not linked to constitutional rights because the repercussions of over speeding and jumping a signal is a catastrophic and could lead to deadly accidents. The problem that was solved with the linked verdict was that the process of proving innocence was not easy and this could have been easily solved with process change, without all the legal wrangling. It is just legalese porn and an over complication.
By shakahshakah 2026-03-0918:211 reply New Jersey abandoned their red-light camera laws after ticket challenges involving yellow-light lengths. The length should be proportional to the posted speed limit (e.g. 5.5 seconds for 50 mph), but many lights were found to have incorrect timing (e.g. 2.5 seconds for 50 mph).
Also, I think at that time some questionable arrangements surfaced between the operators of the automated ticketing system(s) and the towns and/or counties involved.
By NetMageSCW 2026-03-0922:31 My city seems to be fixing this by having yellow lights extend when it sees a car reasonably close to the intersection. And also helps by switching lights quickly based on car presence.
By 0xbadcafebee 2026-03-0923:26 > the Judge also spent some ink criticizing the law because paying the ticket removes the ticket from your driving record
Weird thing to point out, as in Florida, if you get any traffic citation, you just hire The Ticket Clinic for ~$80. If they don't get your ticket expunged or points eliminated, you get your money back. They don't lose often. You can keep racking up tickets, but not get any points, as long as you've got $80.
By stronglikedan 2026-03-0918:081 reply That's by design, and that's a good thing. Anything where the person actually driving the car can't be identified (i.e., tickets given by camera as opposed to in-person) shouldn't have any long term affect on anyone's personal records.
If you can't tell who was driving, you shouldn't be sending anyone a ticket.
By elliottkember 2026-03-0922:281 reply You get a parking ticket regardless of who parked
By elliottkember 2026-03-104:141 reply Yes, there is a distinction. But it’s irrelevant in this case because you can be ticketed for either. The speeding ticket goes to the registered owner and there are no demerit points as there is no proof of driver identity.
No, there is a difference. Parking tickets are civil infractions that can only result in a fine (or in some cases a tow, but let’s not get lost in the weeds). Running a red light, on the other hand, is a moving violation committed by the _driver_ specifically, not the owner of the vehicle. Moving violations can result in criminal penalties. Sending a ticket to the owner of the vehicle and then making them defend themselves is unconstitutional.
Look, I get it. You guys are all European and think it’s perfectly normal to have to defend yourself when the government assumes that you are guilty. But here in the USA we have protections against that. The government _must_ assume that you are innocent until they can _prove_ that you are guilty. That includes not assuming that the owner of the vehicle was the one driving it, no matter how common that scenario is.
By elliottkember 2026-03-1023:211 reply I’m not European. Many countries have speed cameras.
It differs how you’re caught. We treat a red light camera or speed camera violation as an infringement offence, like parking. If you’re pulled over, you can have your license suspended or be charged with reckless driving on the spot, because they know who you are.
There’s no case, and no guilt, just a penalty. It’s not about guilt but responsibility. You’re responsible for the car when it’s registered to you.
If you want an analogue, try carpool lane tickets. Same thing.
By db48x 2026-03-118:50 If your country’s law says that the owner of the car commits a crime if the driver runs a red light, then ticketing the owner makes perfect sense. But in Florida the law says that the _driver_ has committed the crime. Therefore the _driver_ must be ticketed, not the owner.
By aldonius 2026-03-101:00 Either way, it's bizarre that blame-assignation is anything other than defaults-to-owner.
Wow, that's a huge problem with that red light camera program then. The drives that run red lights around me clearly don't care much for minor consequences. The point needs to be to identify the sociopathic drivers and get them off the road.
By neutronicus 2026-03-0918:15 In my jurisdiction, the GP point is irrelevant because the biggest problem drivers just ignore the fines [1].
It's very common to just have fake plates / registration, with the plan in the case of an accident to just bail out and run.
[1] https://www.wmar2news.com/homepage-showcase/how-md-drivers-w...
You mistakenly believe that these camera systems are not functioning exactly as intended: they're a revenue stream. If they ended up shutting down the offenders that revenue stream would dry up. The sociopath you've identified is called a whale instead.
By neutronicus 2026-03-0918:16 Not in my jurisdiction - the biggest offenders know that there's no collection mechanism with any teeth, so they just ignore the fines [1].
FWIW, despite all this the speed cameras have been effective at reducing average speeds at problem points.
[1] https://www.wmar2news.com/homepage-showcase/how-md-drivers-w...
