Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that red light cameras can stay in the city of Aventura.
The dispute had been centered around having third party contractors operate the cameras. While initial footage is collected by non-government workers, they follow a guideline provided by the city of Aventura to sift through the footage to send along to the police. Trained police officers then have the final say in issuing tickets, which is why judges ruled the red light camera program constitutional.
However, controversy surrounding the program itself continues, outside the level of authority given to contractors. Aventura resident Andy Cejas saids cameras are unfit as accusers in court.
“The law says that we need to face our accuser, [a camera is] a machine so it doesn’t go with the original laws that we had in place," he said. "It should be a cop seeing you, and then when you go to court, you can face your accuser.”
The city of Aventura has no plans to further expand the red light camera programs, but will continue to operate existing cameras.
