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Toledo City Council committee discusses red light camera ordinance

The committee met to discuss whether or not to allow the red light and speeding cameras to come back next year, along with a new appeals process.

TOLEDO, Ohio — A Toledo City Council committee met to discuss reintroducing red-light traffic cameras - this time favoring hand-held, manually operated devices and stationary photo-enforcement devices.

The ordinance before the Public Safety & Criminal Justice Reform Committee seeks to repeal the Toledo Municipal Code permitting penalties to be enforced for automated red-light system violations and then to enact new Toledo Municipal Code Section 303.98, which will allow the use of hand-held, manually operated and stationary photo-enforcement devices and to provide for the enforcement of this ordinance in the Toledo Municipal Court.

The ordinance is being sought as an emergency measure. 

The penalties for violating the red-light devices would be $120 and no points levied on a license. 

You can watch the proceedings in the player below: 

The program had to be stopped due to lawsuits, so the city has made some changes to make sure they won't face the same issues. Red light cameras that capture your license plate could be returning to intersections like Secor and Monroe next April if city council approves the new plan at its next meeting. 

The biggest changes would be increased signage to let you know a red light camera is coming up and a more transparent appeals process if you choose to dispute the ticket.

"Most of the people I've talked to aren't against cameras, they're against cameras they don't know are going to be there. So what they're against is actually being surprised by cameras and this adjustment from the administration's way of handling this removes the element of surprise," Councilperson Sam Melden said.

If you are ticketed, you would also now go through the court system to appeal the ticked as opposed to the police department.

"You know making our community safer is difficult, making our roads safer shouldn't be difficult and I think this is a way we can make our roads safer," Melden said.

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