Have you seen any cop-in-the-box cameras lately?
No, you have not. You haven’t seen a single camera since December.
The city hasn’t said anything, but the controversial program has been shelved in Akron — perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanently — because of a state law that financially punishes cities that use automated speed or red-light cameras.
In 2014, the legislature passed a law that trumped the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling that automated ticketing is legal.
The legislature responded to the court’s 4-3 vote by requiring a police officer to be present whenever a speed camera is used, thereby effectively killing the program.
An amendment was later added that enables the state to cut funding to a city that continues to use unmanned cameras in an amount equal to what the city bills in cop-in-the-box tickets.
In other words, if Akron bills its usual $1.8 million in annual fines, give or take, the state would cut $1.8 million from the Local Government Funds the city would have received — even though a significant portion of what is billed isn’t collected and 30 percent of what is collected goes to the camera company, American Traffic Solutions in Tempe, Ariz.
With a local court battle continuing to rage, Akron decided it didn’t want to risk a funding cut.
So guess what? All that talk by the city about how this is purely a safety measure, rather than an ongoing fundraiser, has lost some of its luster.
Are we now putting a price on the safety of our kids? We’re not willing to pay $1.8 million a year to guarantee they won’t be run over by speeding cars?
But we digress.
Akron, Columbus, Dayton, Springfield and Toledo have sought temporary injunctions against the law in local courts. In Akron, some parts of the law were ruled unconstitutional last spring by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tom Teodosio.
The state appealed to the 9th District Court of Appeals. In December, the appeals court sent back Teodosio’s ruling for clarification, asking whether he believes he can outlaw only some of the provisions. The court did not say whether he was right or wrong on the parts he ruled unconstitutional.
So Akron doesn’t know whether Teodosio’s initial ruling is currently valid. Assistant Law Director Chris Reece says the uncertainty is what prompted the suspension of the program, pending Teodosio’s decision, which he expects to come very soon.
Cities that have objected to the law banning cameras claim it violates the sanctity of home rule. Says Reece: “There’s a constitutional right for the cities to set up and operate these types of systems, and two Supreme Court cases have affirmed the right of the cities under their home rule powers.”
On the flip side, state Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, who has led the charge against cameras, says the state has the authority to govern travel within the state, and if this were left up to individual cities — which use the cameras in different ways — a motorist traveling across Ohio wouldn’t know the rules for the various cities.
One big problem with cop-in-the-box is that no program on earth is entirely flawless, and anyone who has challenged a ticket during the program’s 10-year run had to do so in an “administrative hearing” presided over by a person with no legal training who sometimes didn’t seem to be influenced by facts. Multiple attorneys have invoked the phrase “kangaroo court.”
And there’s no practical way to appeal the administrator’s ruling. The only way to fight the $100 fine is to pay $250 to take the case to a real court.
Although some people have been willing to fork out the extra money to prove a point, most do the math and simply surrender.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com. He also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bob.dyer.31.