OUR TURN: SHOULD WE USE CAMERAS TO CATCH RED-LIGHT RUNNERS?

PUT REAL OFFICERS, NOT CAMERAS, AT STOPLIGHTS
FROM: THE GREENVILLE (SC) NEWS [link]
PUBLISHED THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2005

Cameras are great law enforcement assets. They’re indispensable in helping prosecutors prove cases in court but are no substitute for actual officers.

If we want to curb red-light running, I have some alternative ideas.

Appropriately fund law enforcement. Do we really need to fund programs that put those giant smiley faces made of rocks on Interstate exit ramps? Let’s move those funds to provide for an adequate number of professional officers to protect and serve the public.

Reallocate current enforcement resources to make real differences. For years, 55 mph was perfectly acceptable for Laurens Road, from Fairforest Way to Mauldin’s city limits. Now the area’s posted limit is 45 mph and resembles a Dukes of Hazzard speed trap emphasizing revenue over safety. Let’s have officers instead stop people running red lights at either end.

Quit ticketing stupidity and make a difference in the safety and security of motorists and pedestrians. If you and your adult passengers don’t want to wear your seatbelts, fine. Fly through the windshield. You may hurt or kill yourselves, but no one else. However, if you run a red light, you could hit my car with my wife and son in it. Let officers patrol intersections to protect us from vehicular manslaughter, not force them to drive around to see if Gomer is an idiot without a seatbelt.

Those are just a few common-sense solutions to a too-common problem and make a lot more sense than cameras that can’t enforce anything, don’t they?

TAFT MATNEY, 32, LIVES IN GREENVILLE AND IS THE PRESIDENT OF A LOCAL PUBLIC RELATIONS AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS FIRM.