Kansas City’s New Red Light Camera Law Likely to be Tougher than Old One

Kansas City, Missouri is considering reinstating its red light camera law. If it does, the new law is likely to be tougher than the old one in several respects.

The City manager’s office and the legal City Hall have been considering this since the old red light camera laws in Missouri were overturned by the missouri Supreme Court last month.

“My concerns with that is how will affect the courts. Will it bog them down? Does it accomplish the outcomes we want to see? So there are some things to work thru as we’re going forward,” said Aliisa Canady, the Chairman of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.

Any revised red light camera law would have to clear Canady’s committee.

To comply with the Supreme Court opinion, a new red light camera law would probably have to take a photo that clearly shows the face of the driver, not just the license plate of the car.

Any new law would also have to make the penalties harsher.
In Kansas City, a red light camera conviction came with a $100 fine, but no points of the convicted motorist’s drivers license.

It now appears the comply, the conviction has to be reported to the state and points deducted from the drive’s license.

Any revised red light camera law would have to clear Canady’s committee.

So Canady, a former assistant prosecutor, and other members of the Public Safety Committee will have a large role to play in adopting a revised ordinance.

“I’m not interested in using this just to produce revenue. We have a lot of other ways to do that in Kansas City,” said council member Katheryn Shields.

“A lot of folks have talked about officer safety and driver safety. I think we really need to look into those things before doing something just because we have the technology,” added another member, Quinton Lucas.