For the past decade, the city of Sugar Land has overzealously enforced its red-light camera ordinance. Nine red-light cameras are currently entrapping drivers within the city limits. It is time to bring them down.

People have tried before. In 2013, Sugar Land rejected a petition to place the red-light camera issue up for a public vote. The petition was identical to the one that successfully ended Houston’s infamous cameras. But Sugar Land pulled legal shenanigans, flip-flopping on whether the Texas Local Government Code or the City Charter applied, and hired an outside law firm to help with the litigation. Advocates lacked funds to legally contest the rejection, and so the cameras remain in place.

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And thanks to the red-light cameras, Sugar Land has all the money it could hope for. Last year the city netted a whopping $977,350 in revenue from its red-light camera enforcement system.

That cash flow makes it hard to swallow the city’s claim that traffic safety is its only objective.

But Sugar Land should hold on to those dollars. If we win our class action lawsuit filed last year, the city is going to have to return all the fines and late fees it has collected over the past two years.

This suit is being heard by the Texas First Court of Appeals. I’m the lead plaintiff. Our lawyers are convinced that the city has been operating the system in violation of state law, which required the city to first perform an engineering study before activating the system.

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The cameras also violate the Texas Constitution, which mandates all civil matters involving $200 or less must be heard in the justice of the peace court. Camera violations are instead heard by some administrative hearing officer who is hand-picked by the city council, with appeal limited to the municipal judge. It is a system that denies Texans our right to a trial by jury.

The Texas Supreme Court is currently considering a challenge to red-light cameras.

Beyond legal arguments, red-light cameras are simply an oppressive way to enforce traffic laws, allowing for no nuance or subjective judgment.

I got my first camera ticket after eight years of carefully trying to avoid a red-light violation. That violation was only 0.3 seconds into the red and my speed was 37 miles-per-hour in a 45 miles-per-hour zone. I appealed the violation to no avail in both the non-judicial administrative hearing and municipal court.

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Maybe I blinked when the light turned yellow and, when I saw the yellow light, I was too close to the intersection to safely stop. Or maybe I guessed I would enter the intersection before the light turned red. Whatever happened, I lost the guessing game that the camera enforcement system forces all drivers to play.

Drivers shouldn’t have to accept punishment for either blinking at the wrong time or for failing to be clairvoyant when making a snap decision after a traffic light turns yellow.

As the fight against red-light cameras progresses, something will have to give. Either revenue-driven law enforcement is going to take a big hit, or our constitutional form of government is going to be ignored.

Our courts, the city of Sugar Land and all of Texas must choose wisely.

Van Der Grinten is a 22-year resident of Sugar Land and the founder of Houston Coalition Against Red Light Cameras.