Mayor Tishaura Jones wants red light cameras in St. Louis — but their fate at the Board of Aldermen seems inextricably linked to a bill meant to provide oversight of police surveillance.
Aldermanic President Megan Green is adamant that it’s important not to implement an automated traffic enforcement system that would enable another vast network of cameras in the city, without first passing a bill that would allow for accountability and transparency for citizens’ civil rights.
As a result, bills that may seem unrelated to one another have led to tensions between the former allies. And three bills related to the two issues will be priorities for both Green and Jones when the Board of Aldermen returns from its recess this week.
Bill 105 would permit the use of red light cameras for traffic enforcement, while its companion Bill 106 would set up the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Improvement Fund and authorize the appropriation of those funds. Those are the bills Jones supports.
Bill 185, on the other hand, is the subject of Green’s focus. It provides an accountability framework all surveillance technology will have to go through before being approved for use in the city.
While Green is a co-sponsor of 105 and 106, she says the passage of 185 is necessary to ensure accountability for the surveillance measures called for by the red light camera bill.
The three bills will be among the first to be heard by the board at the start of the upcoming session, Green says.
The Return of Red Light Cameras
For years, the city of St. Louis had red light cameras that were used to automatically enforce traffic safety, says Ward 3 Alderman Shane Cohn. This program was suspended after a 2015 state Supreme Court ruling found the program unconstitutional, citing due process concerns since drivers could be slapped with fines even if they weren’t proven to be at the wheel.
Advocates for the new bills, including the mayor’s office, hope that their wording will satisfy the court’s concerns by ensuring no one is ticketed unless they’ve been positively identified as the person who was driving the car when a violation occurred.
Since the court struck down automated enforcement, the city has seen drastic increases in traffic fatalities, Cohn said at the hearing for board bills 105 and 106, both of which he sponsors. Cohn said the city has also seen fewer traffic stops and traffic citations.
Last year, according to the mayor’s office, there were 228 crashes involving pedestrians, including 225 with injuries and 8 with fatalities, on city streets.
Cohn says board bills 105 and 106 differ from the city’s previous red light camera program in that instead of using the revenue to enrich the city’s coffers, those funds would go towards advancing city infrastructure and implementing traffic calming measures in neighborhoods.
Yet civil rights activists argue that though traffic safety is a priority, red light cameras are invasive and will harm minority communities.
Inez Bordeaux, who works with ArchCity Defenders and has been a vocal advocate for surveillance transparency in the city, said at the bills’ committee hearing she is opposed to both bills 105 and 106 for a multitude of reasons.
“We shouldn’t even be having a discussion about red light cameras until we pass CCOPS [Board Bill 185],” Bordeaux said. “So everyone on the committee who was going to vote for this, I hope to see your affirming vote for CCOPS also.”
Bordeaux added that with the way the bill is currently constructed to satisfy due process standards, it will be nearly impossible to enforce.
“If you cannot ticket the car, and you’re not allowed to use facial recognition or AI, I just don’t understand how this is enforceable and we could be using our time to be creating true traffic safety,” Bordeaux said. “At best this bill is reactive, at worst it’s just more criminalization in St. Louis, which we don’t need.”
To Green, the solution can be found by using Board Bill 185 to provide checks and balances to the two red light camera bills.
“There is good data out there that shows that automated traffic enforcement systems, if paired with appropriate oversight, can reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries in cities and municipalities,” Green said. “We know right now we have a traffic violence crisis and this is one tool in that toolbox to help address that crisis.”
Police Surveillance Systems Enter the Conversation
Mayor Jones has been vocal in calling for the red light camera legislation to be passed. The problem is that, in its current form, a spokesman told the RFT last week, Jones is unlikely to sign the bill to which Green has hitched its destiny — Board Bill 185.
Jones tried to force the board’s hand to quickly pass 105 and 106 by signing an executive order undercutting the need for Board Bill 185. But her executive order setting some curbs on police surveillance stirred pushback from activists, who say Jones didn’t go far enough to protect citizens’ civil liberties.
“Public Safety includes every part of our city, especially our streets,” Jones said when presenting the executive order on February 23. “We have to do more now as a city to eliminate the culture of traffic violence that has taken too many lives and injured too many more. I hope that my actions today, along with the actions of Chief [Robert] Tracy and his team, have made the decision much easier for the Board of Alderman to pass Board Bill 105, the Automated Camera Enforcement Act, which will help to protect the lives of our residents and visitors.”
According to the mayor’s office, the executive order specifies how St. Louis Police can and cannot use artificial intelligence and surveillance technologies; requires police to provide an annual report to the Board of Aldermen with detail on use of surveillance technologies in use, specifies that SLMPD will only provide access to surveillance information or data to authorized individuals, and will create policies for the use and sharing of this information and data, and more.
Even so, the order drew sharp criticism from President Green, who says it doesn’t go far enough to promote transparency and accountability within the police department. Green also noted in a statement to social media that executive orders can be overturned by future mayors.
“It simply requests compliance from departments and reiterates pre-existing regulations related to police conduct established by federal law,” Green wrote. “Despite repeatedly engaging with the mayor’s office on this and many other issues important to the people of St. Louis, a pattern of evading responsibility is emerging.”
Ward 2 Alderman Tom Oldenburg accused Green of holding Board Bills 105 and 106 “hostage” until the police surveillance bill is passed. That’s even though the automated traffic enforcement bills were introduced five months ago, Oldenburg said.
Kerrigan and the mayor’s office also believe that the bills are linked and Green’s insistence on passing bill 185 is delaying the other two bills.
Green disagrees with that. She says the hope is that all bills pass in unison, but said bills 105 and 106 could pass before bill 185.
“We are trying to get all of them voted out of committee in the next two weeks so they are second read at the board at our next meeting March 29th,” Green says.
Even so, Green says she believes it’s essential that Board Bill 185 passes before the red light cameras are fully implemented so the public can have a say in how the technology is used, Green said.
“The Board of Aldermen can amend those use proposals if we need to and then ultimately pass it out to make sure that however this technology is used is done so in a way that actually is effective in reducing traffic violence, while also does not unintentionally harm communities,” Green says. “A real concern lately has been folks who are seeking reproductive health care like abortion or IVF, or asylum seekers are all concerned about mass camera networks, and the way that data could be used or shared, and the impacts that can have on their lives.”
Since the RFT’s interviews with Green and Kerrigan, both parties have reached out saying that they had a lengthy discussion about the language of Board Bill 185 that was overall positive. Now those language changes are being sent back to stakeholders to see if both parties can agree on a path forward.
“The lines of communication are finally open,” Green says.
According to the board’s calendar, bills 105 and 106 are set to be heard on March 25 at the Public Infrastructure and Utilities Committee Meeting.
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