Ask your Redlight Camera Questions Here

I unfortunately cannot answer all questions regarding Red Light Camera questions over the phone. Instead I'll ask everyone to ask the questions below in the comments' section. This way those with similar questions may find their question already answered.  Thank you.

The Smell of Red Light Camera Companies

March 4, 2013
I have been fighting red light camera tickets since 2010. Over the last two years it has become clear that there some very disturbing things going on with the red light camera cases and specifically the companies that have installed them.
Before I go too far into this post I want to make sure my position is clear. Running red lights is one of the most hazardous things a person can do. The main cause for running a red light is speed - not texting or any other politically correct target of the day - it is speed. When a person drives over the speed limit they all think the amber light has been shortened to accommodate more camera tickets. It's not the time of the amber, it is the speed of the vehicle.
Additionally, the cities and counties that are fighting to push these tickets through are just trying to do what is right, what they believe is their job to do. They are doing nothing wrong in the prosecution of these cases. However, they need to start looking at what the red light camera companies are trying to do. They need to start looking at the documentation that the companies are trying to pass off as legitimate business records.

Fabrication of Business Records

To any attorney defending clients from the red light camera citations it soon becomes clear that something fishy is going on with the documents produced by the red light camera companies. Defending these citations has always just been objecting to the form of the document. What is being asked to be introduced as a business record or public record has to meet certain criteria (a predicate must be laid). So far, the predicate has not been put before the court. The cities keep trying but without success (so far).
The worrisome thing that occurs is that when the cities and counties run into a road block they seem to come back at it with a bigger hammer. Not once have they looked at the situation and tried to legitimately clear the roadblock. But what is really disturbing is how witness testimony seems to change in an attempt to "say" what the court wants to hear.
From the beginning we have heard that a document that is titled the "Florida Statement of System Reliability" contains evidence of when the "self-test" occurs. This document always has it being done at the exact same time each day - midnight. Despite many other problems with this document it has become known, through the release of more documentation and testimony, that the Florida Statement of System Reliability does not indicate when the self-test occurs. Recent testimony and documentation now state the self-test always occurs around 2AM. The big red balloon here is the change in direction from the camera company's statements as to what is actually occurring. Either they are telling the truth now, they were telling the truth over the last two years, or they have yet to tell the truth. Why have the cities and counties not questioned the red light camera companies regarding this obvious problem?
This is just one example of some of the sketchy things that are going on with the red light camera hearings. Most of the municipalities hire outside counsel and are probably not keeping close tabs on what is going on. One, however, is using in-house counsel. It is inexcusable for our government to not pay attention to these issues. At one point I wrote about how the red light camera debacle could be fixed. As time drags on, it seems difficult that any of these companies can be trusted to be honest about their product and its reliability.

Eric Dirga is an Orlando Criminal Defense and Traffic Law attorney.

2012 - 2013

Year In Review, Looking Forward

December 31, 2012

Red Light Cameras

The Red Light Camera debacle continues in the state of Florida. Spurned on by greed (not "safety") the law is full of problems. Unfortunately, in our society it is money that sways justice rather than justice itself. The noble cause of freedom has long ago disappeared from the minds of our elected "representatives" (joke). The Red Light Camera contracts that were signed before any state law was enacted were based on the idea that a single municipality could derive revenue by creating it's own traffic laws within it's boundaries. The Fifth District Court of Appeal rightfully struck down this tack by the cities as being in violation of the "uniform" traffic law requirement. This reasoned decision was not enough for the cities that had jumped the gun with the implementation of the red light cameras. They have now asked the Florida Supreme Court to review the Fifth District Court's decision.

The pressure is on judges and hearing officers to "make the red light cameras work." There has to be some "higher" voice speaking down to them to try and get these citations to pay. That can be the only explanation for the contrasting orders that have come out of the courts. Note: higher voice does not mean God but political weight. See the two decisions from same judge below:

(to be posted at later date but soon - check back)

Problems With State Use of "Diversion" Programs

I have noticed a problem with the use of "diversion" programs used by the Office of the State Attorney. A diversion program allows someone with no criminal history or a very minor history that has been charged with a new criminal offense (minor and non-violent) to participate in a program after which their criminal case is dropped. This is a great program for people who have actually committed a crime without police misconduct. However, if there is police misconduct such as an illegal stop (we still have the right to not be seized and searched, just FYI - see Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution) and a person accepts diversion there is not opportunity to punish law enforcement for their violation of our rights. When I say "punish" I refer to the legal sense of punishment in the form of suppression of evidence. Suppression was determined to be a way of trying to correct the bad behavior of the state officers when it came to violation of Constitutional Rights. The idea supposes that suppression would teach the state officers not to repeat the violation. With the Office of the State Attorney offering diversion more and more to first time offenders the opportunity to address state violations of our rights becomes less and less.

Racing On Highway Statute still Vague

The Racing on Highway statute has gone through several iterations since it was created in 2002. When it came to life back then we had police officers charging people with racing for such things as speeding, driving side by side, loud mufflers, spinning tires, and just because. It was a new law that the police could charge people with but unfortunately no one taught the police the nuances of the law. Soon thereafter, the original law was declared unconstitutional in one district. Later a different district found it to be A-OK. Just before the Florida Supreme Court decided who was right the legislature made some changes to the statute and and the review became moot. However, the changes did not clarify anything. It still says that "preventing another vehicle from passing" is racing when it is clearly a simple traffic infraction. The added language requiring that there be a "challenge" and an "acceptance" of that challenge has done little to educate law enforcement on when and when not to charge somebody with racing.

Final Thoughts...for now

If we don't challenge the authorities at the most mundane levels they will think it is okay to impose their will on us at all levels. Society requires laws to live by and we all accept those laws. At the same time we also know that power corrupts. If you look at our representatives at the local level we see the same people being elected or appointed to positions of power. A former commissioner becomes a member of the Tollway Authority, a son of a former Senator gets appointed to an open commission seat, a brother of a former Senator's law firm wins a city contract. These things happen. The only thing I know to do is challenge them anytime there is a violation of the law or our rights. This is not a new concept. It is how our government has been devised. The power of the people has an opportunity to be heard and to influence their representatives. Unfortunately, our representatives have become a class of select people not necessarily based on intelligence or civic duty and the people exercise their right to be heard less and less. Maybe someone will stand up and become the leader of reform. Maybe things will change for the better - and that is only a slight change, a nudge, just to keep us on track. We don't need much, just every so often we have to tack back on to our course rather than just accept the prevailing wind.

Eric Dirga is a lawyer with an office in Orlando. You can contact him at his website or on Google+.

It's cRiMinAL!

If you have visited the Orange County Courthouse recently you may have noticed that the elevator service to floors 5 through 23 are "under repair." When the repairs are complete (December 2013) the public is promised to have an efficient elevator service. Until then do not pay attention to the lines or the guards telling you what to do and use the stairs. Oh, right, there are no stairs.

The red light camera program is moving full steam ahead. Safety is the main concern and reason for these cameras. Once the cities that deploy these cameras "feel" that an intersection has been "made safe" they redeploy them to a new intersection to work their magic again. It does cost money to operate these safety devices and that money is directly tied to fines imposed for running them. So if you want these safety cameras around you have to keep running those lights.

Apparently, there was a concerted effort to oust some of Florida's Supreme Court justices this past election. Three were up for merit retention votes. Every election some justices and district court judges are placed on the ballot for the citizens to vote on whether they should remain on the bench. The Florida Bar, afraid that politics was entering the election process mounted a successful "advertising" campaign to keep it (politics) out of the election process. Apparently, the Florida Bar was successful. No Justice or District Court Judge has ever been ousted by a merit retention vote and none were again.


Eric J Dirga is an attorney in Orlando practicing criminal and traffic defense.

Red Light Camera Statute & Training

When the Red Light Camera statute was passed into law (section 316.0083, Fla. Stat., known as the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Program) several other enabling statutes had to be created or amended. One of the first mentioned in the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Program [Act] is that the municipality may authorize traffic enforcement officers to issue the red light camera citations provided they comply with the training requirements found under s. 316.640, Fla. Stat. Unfortunately, none of the traffic enforcement officers hired by the City of Orlando or Orange County (excluding any prior certified law enforcement officers) has complied with the statute.

Instead of complying with the statute, the municipalities trained their would-be officers on their own. Recent court rulings have found the training to be inadequate as required by statute. The municipalities are finally retraining their officers (Dec 2012) after having issued thousands of citations since 2010. However, rather than admit the problem and move on (dismiss what is still pending) the municipalities are still fighting trying to argue (somehow) that the citations were issued by properly trained officers.

In the immortal words of Jimmy Buffett, "breath in, breath out, move on..."

Eric J Dirga is an attorney in Orlando practicing criminal and traffic defense.

Watch Out in Orange County!

There is a new crack down going on in Orange County! It is the failure to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk law (s. 316.130 F.S.) and local law enforcement is watching for it!

Actually, They are doing a bit more...

Actually, they are setting you up. They have a plain clothes police officer standing at the ready to step out into the crosswalk as you approach. Once you are close, the undercover cop steps out and a marked unit is ready to pull you over if you do not hit your brakes.

Why is this happening...

Central Florida has the reputation of the most dangerous streets for pedestrians and the local governments have made it a priority to do something about it. Well, this is what they have come up with.  Is it entrapment? "But for" the actions of the plain clothes police officer the infraction would not have occurred - right?

The Cost

The fine for this ticket is $166. It is considered a moving violation and points will be assessed if you just pay the fine.

How to Fix the Red Light Camera Dilemma

Orlando's "Stops" program. A Red Light Camera
program still using unauthorized signage.

Red Light Cameras are here to stay. If you don't like that it's too bad - get use to them. There is way too much money coming from them (because people continue to run them) for any municipality to give them up. Upset, disgusted, mad? Good. Now let's talk about fixing the problems faced by the municipalities.

When these Red Light Camera companies came to Florida to peddle their wares it was like a dream come true for the cities and towns under the budget crunch from the "great recession." The Red Light Camera companies came to them promising them millions so it was no surprise that the bureaucrats, politicians, and accountants looked past all the legalities straight to the bottom line. Before anyone thought to look towards consequences we had major cities contracting with these companies to throw up the first of many red light cameras.  All seemed well at first. The money rolled in and all were happy (except, of course, for the public which was again being fleeced of their money by government).

Then the consequences hit. You see, Florida law requires the traffic laws to be uniform across the state. Makes sense, we take just one test to be able to drive throughout Florida therefore the laws should be uniform. Still, it is hard to believe these city politicians could not see past their own greed and recognize that problem, but they didn't. With all these municipalities formulating their own ordinances to enforce the red light camera tickets it was not long before someone challenged it. And someone did.

Challenging an infraction typically requires that the driver, the person fleeced of his money, to pay for an appeal. An appeal can take over a year to be ruled upon. In this case it was appealed and the circuit court agreed with the driver. Unfortunately, that decision was "appealed" to the district court of appeal and that took more time.

During this appellate process the State of Florida decided there was money to be had and, oh yeah, all these traffic laws have to be uniform. So the Florida legislature drew up a bill and passed it creating a new Florida statute specifically for red light camera citations (s. 316.0083, Fla. Stat.). To say it was thrown together in a rush is an understatement. The legislature was trying to create a legal process for something that had already started. It was, has been, and is a hard steep climb.

You see, the problem the state has when law enforcement officers rely on machines to charge people is the ability to establish that the "machine" was working properly when it was used. For example, and as a comparison, the use of a radar gun or laser to measure a car's speed for the issuance of a speeding ticket. The law enforcement officer can't just come into court and say my radar gun told me the driver was speeding. How does anyone know if the radar was working properly or malfunctioned? So instead, the officer must show that the radar was working properly on that day. How does he do this? He follows the administrative code promulgated by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles that sets forth specific requirements, including regular maintenance schedules and daily testing. Now the officer can simply comply by the administrative code for radar guns and the reliability is presumed by the court. Simple, right.

Wrong. Like I pointed out. The cities jumped the gun and got caught up in multimillion dollar contracts with companies way before any framework for the red light cameras was put in place. The state tried to remedy this by the passage of laws setting forth time-tables to get the infrastructure in place (regulations, i.e., administrative codes). The scramble was on but, remember when this started, the great recession wasn't over (by definition it was over but the economy had not changed gears and God knows what it is doing). There was no money. The Florida Department of Transportation sent out a simple letter instead of promulgating any codes for the testing and maintenance of the red light cameras. Big problem but that wasn't all.

Florida red light camera.

You see, these cities really didn't want to pay a high salaried union police officer to sit in an office all day and look at videos. The state apparently didn't want that either. So they passed a law allowing people that were not fully qualified law enforcement officers to sit and watch videos all day. They did make them have to get some training but not to the level of a full police officer (and thus they did not have to pay them much). Unfortunately for the cities, the training required by the state for these video watchers is an 80-hour program established by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. In the cities rush to have red light cameras they just hired some ex-cop to train their video watchers in an "equivalent" class - that happened to be only 8-hours long. Yeah, it didn't seem equivalent to me either.  Regardless, the Cities and Red Light Camera companies decided to draw the line in the sand and fight with what they had.

Flash forward to today. We have a mess. Some cities are playing it smart and just dropping tickets that are being challenged by attorneys who fight these cases. Other cities are paying outside law firms ($$$) to represent them in court for these cases. The courts are clogged and confusion reigns.

How can the cities fix this problem? Simple, really. Stop prosecuting these citations until they have properly trained their employees (as required by law) and push the state to promulgate codes that set forth a single established method of maintaining and testing the red light cameras.  Seems rather simple but they have yet to do any of this. Instead they are continuing to spend money prosecuting cases that they know had improperly trained personnel issuing the citations.

What about all us drivers that have to pay for these cameras? All I can tell you is slow down and don't run red lights. As long as the cities are making money these cameras will not be going away. The only way they will go away is if they stop making money. Understand? Once the revenue dries up the companies and cities will invalidate their contracts and the cameras will be removed.

 Eric J Dirga is an attorney in Orlando practicing criminal defense and traffic law.