(St. Louis Public Radio) – Getting caught on camera running a red light in St. Louis will no longer result in a fine.
In a 6-1 opinion issued Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court called the city’s ordinance governing red light cameras unconstitutional because it assumes the owner of the car was the one driving the car at the time of the violation.
“This court finds ordinance 66868 is constitutionally invalid because it creates a rebuttable presumption that shifts the burden of persuasion onto the defendant to prove that the defendant was not operating the motor vehicle at the time of the violation
This is the third time a court has struck down the city’s red light camera ordinance. In 2013, Judge Mark Neill found the law unconstitutional because the state had never given cities the authority to enact red light camera ordinances and because it violated due process. In 2014, Judge Steven Ohmer ruled the city had been wrongfully enforcing an invalid ordinance, though he did not rule on the constitutional issues. That case resulted in Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision.
Ohmer allowed the city to continue enforcing its red light ordinance until the Supreme Court issued its ruling, though the money was put into an escrow account. Budget Director Paul Payne said the fund contained about $5 million as of June, though some of those funds were meant for the operator of the cameras, American Traffic Solutions. Payne said he was not immediately sure about what would happen to the city’s share of the fund.
The decision also casts doubt on a plan to hire additional officers for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Mayor Francis Slay had intended to direct the $3.5 million generated per year to cover the salaries and first-year expenses of new officers.