Five years after police began ticketing motorists caught on camera running red lights at dozens of Jacksonville intersections, the red-light camera program will end, Sheriff Mike Williams told City Council on Thursday.
"My position is we always want to add crash avoidance to a number of intersections in Jacksonville, and we were not able to do that successfully," Williams said. "As we dug into it in, the red light camera industry, that technology is not there yet."
At one time, 40 red-light cameras were up across Jacksonville.
The ticketing of motorists based on photographic evidence began across the state after the Legislature authorized the practice in 2010. Owners of vehicles caught on camera running red lights were mailed $158 citations.
Fines will continue to be issued until the contract with the city's vendor ends in December, Williams said.
Lawmakers began discussing repeal of the law after a 2016 report from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles showed that rear-end crashes actually increased at intersections with red-light cameras, as drivers braked suddenly to avoid running lights.
State and local governments have split the fine revenues, which yielded nearly $60 million for the state budget last year, according to the Florida Department of Revenue.
Photo used under Creative Commons license.
