10/16/2007
Missouri: City Upset by Use of Red Light CameraNormandy, Missouri does not want a bordering city operating red light cameras within its jurisdiction.
The city of Normandy, Missouri is upset that red light cameras have been used at intersections that fall within its jurisdiction since April. The bordering city of Beverly Hills, population 600, allowed the private company ATS to set up ticket cameras at a high-volume location at the intersection of Natural Bridge with Lucas and Hunt. One of the cameras at this location falls seventy feet within Normandy's municipal boundaries.
"They're policing in somebody else's venue, and they're generating a hell of a profit from it," Normandy Police Chief Douglas Lebert told the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.
Lebert has been outspoken against the tactics used in notorious speed trap cities such as Beverly Hills, which earns between a third and two-thirds of their budget from traffic tickets. Beverly Hills collects forty percent of its revenue from citations, according to the Post-Dispatch.
Beverly Hills officials insist they have the right to install the camera at the location, and the state department of transportation declined to become involved in the local squabble. Beverly Hills also insists that safety, not revenue, is its primary motivation, although independent studies have found a tendency for injury accidents to increase at the intersections where red light cameras are in use.