MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Some people call red light cameras a money grab, while others think they're a deterrent for bad drivers.
Either way, Manatee County plans on suspending some of its red-light camera violations for the next three months to see what impact the reduction carries.
County commissioners voted Tuesday to stop sending violations to those who don't stop before making a right on red. County officials say the tickets make up two-thirds of those given out to drivers.
Instead, commissioners are going to have the Manatee County Sheriff's Office run some numbers over the next 120 days to see if it's a decision they want to make permanent. Drivers who plow straight through a red light will stick get a ticket during the trial period, according to commissioners.
Commissioner George Kruse suggested suspending the violations. He says the commission has been looking at the issue for the last year.
“We're not even making meaningful money out of it, so it really needs to show me and the rest of this board that it really does provide the safety that it does and if it does, I'll leave them in,” Kruse said.
Kruse says the cameras' impact on the county's revenue shouldn't be a factor in whether or not to keep them.
“The fact that’s even a discussion means we’re looking at this to some extent as a revenue generator for the county which effectively becomes a tax,” he said.
Commissioners said red light camera violations were bringing in an estimated $400,000 a month.
A woman whose husband died in a crash when a driver ran a red light in 2003 says the sheriff's office had a high standard for giving the tickets.
“If you don't stop, you're in danger of hitting a pedestrian. You could hit a bicyclist because we're always looking, glancing quickly to the left when we're going right on red. If there's not a car coming, then we go. But what about the pedestrian in the crosswalk,” Melissa Wandall said.
Wandall says considering that Florida is one of the top places for deaths of people while walking or riding their bikes, commissioners should reconsider the ticket suspensions. Her husband, Mark Wandall, is the namesake for the Florida red light camera law.
“They haven’t even given the opportunity to see how the cameras are going to do," she said.
A recent study released by Smart Growth America ranked Florida's Suncoast among the most dangerous places to walk or ride a bike in the country.
According to the "Pedestrian Danger Index" study, the Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port area ranked as the nation's sixth-most dangerous place for pedestrians from 2010 to 2019.
In that 10-year span, the study found that nearly 200 pedestrians died in the North Port, Sarasota, Bradenton area that researchers studied.
The report also looked at different variables including speed, road design, accessibility, income, age and racial demographics and found "the risk [was] not evenly distributed."
The county recently installed eight new cameras and has a total of 18 county-wide.
Here are the locations:
- NB/SB 34th Street at 53rd Avenue
- NB/SB 14th Street at 57th Avenue East
- 60th Avenue SB at US 301
- Cam A & B US 301 EB at 60th Avenue
- HWY 70 WB at Tara Boulevard
- Cortez Road WB at US 41
- 26th Street West SB at Cortez Road West
- US 41 SB @ Cortez Rd W
- 14th Street West at Bayshore Gardens Pkwy
- 53rd Avenue East at Lockwood Ridge Road
A red light camera ticket costs $158. But where does the money go?
The county receives $75 from the ticket and puts the money toward funding things like Code Enforcement, and portions of Building & Development Services, Planning, Neighborhood Services and Public Works, among others.
Then $70 of each ticket goes toward the state's general revenue fund.
As for the remaining $13, it makes its way to the Department of Health's EMS and the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Trust.
10 Investigates has been looking into how red light camera violations impact our communities for more than a decade. You can check out our coverage here.