Listen to this articleDemocrats killed two pieces of legislation on Jan. 22 with the help of a GOP senator — one proposing a ban on photo radar and the other seeking to eliminate bicycle lanes in municipal plans.
The Senate Transportation, Technology and Missing Children Committee’s deliberation on both bills was primarily centered around whether state legislators should have the power to make choices which could have varied impact on local levels.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 1001, led by Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, was shot down Jan. 22 with a 3-4 vote, with Sen. Frank Carroll, R-Sun City West, joining the Democrats who voted against the bill.
Roger’s long-standing battle against photo radar may be ending as the failed concurrent resolution would have allowed voters to decide if the tool should be law.
Though her bill that mirrored the intent to ban photo radars passed through the Senate Transportation, Technology and Missing Children committee last week, the resolution was likely an attempt to avoid needing the governor’s approval. Its twin bill from the last session, SB1234, passed through the chambers with ease, but Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed it.
“To add insult to injury, every single motor vehicle driver who passes by a camera, whether they’ve violated the law or not, are being photographed and documented,” Rogers said in a press release sent out just minutes after last year’s veto. “This is an egregious invasion of our privacy. Hobbs’ veto fails Arizonans.”
Mesa Police Department Chief Ken Cost and Commander Stephanie Derivan said photo radar is a useful resource for their departments.
Derivan said radars are utilized just as any other tool the agency has.
“I specifically want to mention the concerns we have with placing police tools on the ballot,” Derivan said. “We do not place other tools that assist law enforcement on the ballot, and doing so sets a dangerous precedent.”
The Mesa commander said the city’s photo radars are at intersections within school zones, per community members’ request. Two ongoing requests are also in school zones.
“We do not use photo safety as our only method of traffic enforcement, it is one tool in our toolbox and it is an important tool,” Derivan said.
Paradise Valley Councilwoman Anna Thomason said the city is not pocketing funding from their use of photo radar. Rather, the city places $75 in the general fund each time a ticket is administered to pay the company that handles their photo enforcement.
“Whether we issue ten tickets 1,000 or 10,000 tickets, that number is the same,” Thomason said. “So, there is no correlation from revenue generation to the number of tickets issued.”
Though putting more officers on the street is a commonly raised solution, Thomason said this is an unrealistic precedent as Paradise Valley already struggles to hire and maintain a police force.
Paradise Valley was the first town in the country to use the technology for traffic enforcement.
Tucson, Sierra Vista and Peoria have all voted to ban photo radars.
Carroll also said the decision should be left to the discretion of local municipalities.
“This seems to be nothing more than local government, its decisions to decide what they’re going to do and face the consequences if they are running afoul of the Constitution,” Carroll said.
This should not be a statewide decision, Carroll said, and the concurrent resolution would have wider effects on things like criminal justice enhancement.
Sen. Jake Hoffman’s SB1011 was also staked by a nay vote from Carroll, on similar grounds that it wasn’t a decision to be made on a statewide level.
“The troubling part of this bill, for me, is the fact that we’re setting the state government up to treat the local governments, meaning the cities and the towns or municipalities in the same manner,” Carroll said.
However, Hoffman, a Queen Creek Republican, defended his legislation as “absolutely within our (the Legislature’s) purview” on the grounds that “cities and towns are political subdivisions of the state.”
“They only exist because we allow them to exist,” Hoffman said.
