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DENTON — The potential introduction of an ordinance meant to simplify Denton’s town code in the case of future increases to Maryland’s state-mandated speeding monitoring citation fees raised discussion from the town council about discontinuing the town’s three speed cameras.
Ordinance No. 766 was the result of the state legislation that increases the penalties for speed monitoring citations. As read by Mayor Abigail McNinch, its purpose was to “adopt civil penalties for citations received by a speed monitoring system to comply with Maryland code transportation.” It would eliminate including specific speeding ticket amounts and instead state that the town would enforce the state fee schedule — to avoid having to update the code every time the state changed the fees.
There was a motion and a second to introduce the ordinance, but when McNinch asked for additional discussion before a vote, Councilmember Dallas Lister asked, “what’s the process to get rid of speed cameras completely?”
“I’m not inclined to support any of this,” he said, “I don’t support [speed cameras] in general, but I don’t support increasing more fines and fees…just because the government has budget problems.”
Councilmember Keith Johnson said he supported Lister’s position. He noted the increases to the fines from automated speed cameras, which range from $40 for 12-15 mph over, $70 for 16-19 mph over, $230 for 30-39 mph over, and $425 for 40+ mph. Johnson’s also voiced concerns on the operation of automated speed cameras and their implications on public safety, as well as the placement of two cameras on Camp Road that were intended to monitor Lockerman Middle School traffic that do seem to be working as intended.
“One of the problems with the law is it’s a civil violation,” Johnson said, “the accuser is a computer. They are using MVA records that are being sold to a vendor. A vendor is for-profit…which isn’t the purpose of safety at all.”
“On top of that,” Johnson continued, “the vendor we use has no way for a citizen to get in contact with them… it’s not proper for an adjudication process that you can’t call them.”
As a law enforcement professional himself, Johnson said he runs a speed monitoring camera program for the state of Maryland that does not allow automated enforcement due to the “inability to confront the accuser.”
“Our speed camera in front of Denton Elementary I’m kind of okay with, the ones on Camp Road I think are almost at the point where it’s not impacting the school at all,” Johnson said. He mentioned that the former Wesleyan School’s placement on Camp Road was the reason for putting the cameras in between the two schools, but it doesn’t make sense now that the private school is no longer in operation.
McNinch said that she believes the speed cameras, especially the one near Denton Elementary, have accomplished the goal of slowing traffic. But she said the town’s intent stops there, “the fees associated with it, that was never our intent. It was to slow people down.”
“Last year’s legislation drastically changed fees on everything. It’s not just one area,” Lister said, “I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t want our town to be a part of it…$40 is an inconvenience, $425 is ridiculous. This is a profit motive.”
Bacorn said the town pays $300 per month for each camera regardless of how many citations it issues, and that the fees paid by violators currently goes to the town, “that’s our funding, not the state’s.” He said that he can see the fees eventually going towards the state’s general fund, as they do with other traffic citations. “At the legislative committee for the Maryland Chiefs Association… we opposed this legislation last year for this exact reason. It just degrades the intention of public safety. All we want to do is get people’s attention to slow them down.”
Town Attorney Lyndsay Ryan clarified that Ordinance No. 766 only states that if the town chooses to use automated speed monitoring cameras, they will be compliant with state law in terms of penalty amounts for speeders. The council can choose to discontinue the automated speed monitoring program at any time, as confirmed by Denton Police Chief George Bacorn, and the ordinance would just be a dormant piece of the town code.
Lister said that he does not want to pass the ordinance either way, because, “I won't be on this council forever, and I want to make it as difficult to put fees and penalties on our people as possible. So if I can make this ordinance not pass, and we vote to get rid of speed cameras in another meeting as a different legislative action, then it requires the next council that wants to put these fines in, or the next police chief that recommends this, multiple layers of steps to get through…And that's my goal, to make it as difficult as possible to penalize our people.”
Bacorn said his worry would be that once the public becomes aware the cameras are not in use, the issue of speeding would return, and the Denton Police would have to use costly manpower to monitor the two areas with cameras. Since he didn’t have the information in front of him, he took a “wild guess” that the cameras have issued 150 to 200 citations since October, “which, when we first started the program, we were writing those in a week.” Lister responded, “I don’t disagree with you, but I think there’s other ways of controlling speed.”
“It was effective. It reduced speeds and it reduced them in a matter of months,” Bacorn said. He also said that a speed monitoring trailer that only collects data and shows a traveler’s speed could potentially slow traffic down without issuing citations.
Councilmembers Lester Branson and Frank Taylor withdrew their original motion and second to introduce Ordinance No. 766 in favor of holding a vote after the council could discuss the issue further. Johnson recommended having a public working session strictly relating to the speed camera issue with a presentation on the facts of the program and a dedicated time for input from citizens.
