The Iowa legislature is once again looking at banning traffic cameras to catch speeders. It passed out of a House subcommittee this week.

Similar bills failed last legislative session with the Senate passing a full ban but the House only passing limits on traffic cameras. The debate has big implications for cities with traffic cameras like Cedar Rapids.

Cedar Rapids is coming up on two years since it stopped issuing citations from its speed cameras on I-380 and the impact has been noticeable.

Police Department records show the city issued 149,000 tickets from its speed cameras across the city in fiscal year 2016, the last full year all the cameras were active. That generated nearly $5 million in revenue for the city.

This past fiscal year, the first without active cameras on I-380, the cameras only issued 12,000 tickets. Revenue also plummeted to $1.5 million.

Data from the Iowa DOT also shows crash rates are up slightly in the time since the cameras stopped issuing tickets but is still lower than before the cameras went up to begin with. It is important to note that is a small sample size.

Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman put out a plan last November to start issuing tickets again from those cameras on 380 and use the money to hire more police officers. That plan would need city council approval and so far it has yet to come up on an agenda.