Cleveland traffic camera system unconstitutional, appellate court rules

Well, this is a good first step. I certainly hope they have to pay back every ticket, with interest.

As with many other rulings regarding traffic cameras, this decision is not that the use of cameras is unconstitutional, but that the process for dealing the ticket was improper.

It sounds like the municipality set up the system so that you could not dispute the ticket, and could only appeal the ticket AFTER pleading guilty. Then, the actual fine was not worth going through all the cost and trouble of taking it to appeals court.

But once again, it is not the use of traffic cameras that was wrong. Under this process, even tickets issued by a police officer who observed the violation would be unconstitutional.

As the judicial panel was unanimous in their decision, it is unlikely that the municipality would be successful on appeal.

I'm really glad the process got slapped down. Whatever you think of traffic camera tickets, this kind of judicial stacked deck to make it too hard to appeal an error is extraordinarily unfair and unamerican.

I don't think the cameras will stand up to real rules regarding evidence in a court room under current standards and lets hope they don't change those. It's time to ban them.