Green light given for red light, speed traffic enforcement cameras in Kansas City

Traffic enforcement cameras could soon return to Kansas City’s streets to help catch drivers running red lights and speeding, resuming a program the city suspended more than a decade ago.

The City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance that would bring back an automated camera enforcement system with changes to comply with previous Missouri court rulings that found other cities’ similar red light camera laws conflicted with state law and were unconstitutional.

At the time, the camera enforcement systems took photos only of license plates, and tickets were sent to the vehicle’s owner. The court found the burden of proof was shifted to the vehicle’s owner because there wasn’t enough confirmation that the owner was the person driving at the time of the violation.

With new technology, traffic cameras can now take photos of a license plate and the driver, match the driver’s photo to driver’s license records and confirm the person driving the vehicle is the person attached to the vehicle’s registration, said Gavri Schreiber, general counsel to Mayor Quinton Lucas, during a Special Committee for Legal Review meeting this week.

Traffic deaths are increasing in Kansas City. The record was set in 2020 with 103 traffic deaths. Last year, there were 102. So far this year, there have been 67 traffic deaths, which is slightly ahead of the same time last year.

At the legal review committee meeting, Lucas, who sponsored the ordinance, noted that the city is facing a higher number of traffic deaths this year and police have indicted that relates to people not wearing seat belts as well as those traveling at high speeds.

“We don’t necessarily have more traffic officers that are able to address it, so this is a stopgap idea to ensure that there is additional speed enforcement in certain spaces,” Lucas said.

City’s previous red-light cameras

Kansas City began its red-light program in 2009, and for several years operated 29 cameras at 17 of the city’s most dangerous intersections, all designed to catch red light violators.

But the city suspended the program in 2013 after a Missouri appeals court ruling related to another city concluded most such ordinances violated state law.

Then, in 2015, the Missouri Supreme Court found in separate rulings that the way two cities had been handling red-light camera tickets conflicted with state law and were invalid. The cities had been treating such violations like parking tickets, without deducting points from a violator’s driver licenses, when they should be considered moving violations.

The court also found that the red-light camera laws shifted the burden of proof to the vehicle’s owner, requiring them to prove they were not driving at the time of the violation.

At the time, Kansas City red-light camera program was similar.

Return of traffic enforcement cameras

After St. Louis passed an ordinance to reinstate its automated camera enforcement program this spring, Lucas decided to see if Kansas City could bring back its program.

Under the ordinance passed Thursday, traffic enforcement cameras will take pictures of both the driver and the vehicle and tickets will only be sent when the driver is matched to the owner of the vehicle. The violations will will be considered moving violations and drivers will be assessed points as if they were pulled over by an officer.

Revenue generated by the fines will go to cover costs of the automated camera enforcement system, with the remainder to be used for traffic safety improvement, including Vision Zero projects, in the city.

The ordinance directs the city manager to issue a request for proposals to select a vendor for the system.

Because Kansas City doesn’t have local control over the Kansas City Police Department, it will need the Board of Police Commissioners to sign an agreement allowing the city to take over operation of the automated traffic cameras.

The City Council will review and approve the initial locations of the cameras prior to their installation. The public works director would then determine future locations based on crash and traffic violation data, traffic volume, equity and community feedback.

The ordinance also requires the public works department to have a public awareness campaign no later than 60 days prior to system becoming operational.