In 2006, North Carolina’s second-highest court ruled that, under the state constitution, cities had to give 90 percent of ticket camera revenue to the public school system. Because the true appeal of ticket cameras is revenue, this ruling caused the cities of Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greenville, Greensboro, High Point and Raleigh to shut down their red light camera programs.

However, according to local news station News 14 Carolina, Fayetteville’s ticket cameras may be coming back. But this time it’s not the city that is making a play for the ticket camera money, it’s the local school board:

Red-light cameras might be coming back to Fayetteville to catch drivers running stop lights. Fayetteville removed the cameras last year after the state required 90 percent of fines to go to schools. The city said it could not afford to pay for the service with the remaining 10 percent. […] School board member Greg West wants to change that. He proposed bringing back the red-light cameras after talking with the mayor. His colleague on the school board, Kim Fisher, thinks it is a good idea.

So the local school board, which has no expertise in traffic safety to speak of, would like to install red-light cameras? If they’re interested in traffic safety, why not let them set speed limits then? Or maybe after lunch the cafeteria lady can set up a roadblock and check for proper vehicle registrations.

But surely the school board isn’t in charge of deciding whether or not the cameras are installed…

The school board will now meet with companies who run red-light cameras to come up with a proposal. That proposal will then be passed on to the school board for a vote.

Wow.

Image Credit: RetroJunk