Michigan Senate Votes to Ban Red Light Cameras? Is That A Good Thing?

We're probably making a bigger deal of things than necessary, but in this day and age, you can never be sure and you can never be too careful. Thus, the Michigan Senate on Tuesday, March 22nd, passed a bill prohibiting the use of red light cameras at intersections in the state.

According to the Detroit News, "a 2007 opinion from then-Attorney General Mike Cox already barred cities from creating ordinances to allow citations based on photographs or video produced by an unmanned traffic monitoring device. At the time, Cox found such systems conflicted with the state's vehicle code." And the vote Tuesday seems to simply reinforce that opinion.

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I was dead set against these things, with my thinking being it just seemed borderline immoral for the government to have that kind of advantage over what for the most part is something more of a cat and mouse game. Having seen these cameras in other states and the helpless feeling they bring with them, was not something we needed to do to the good citizens of Michigan.

But I will say, the image above is from when there was a sniper on the loose incident in suburban Maryland some twenty years ago, and red light cameras were used in that instance. Now does one incident like that justify what comes with it. That's something we have to decide as a society, but the Michigan Senate has taken a step for those who are against it.