Red-light camera bill fails in joint committee

The latest effort to install cameras at Oahu intersections to catch drivers who run red lights has died in this year’s legislative session.

Senate Bill 693 would have created a three-year pilot program for cameras across Oahu. However, the bill failed to make it out of a House-Senate conference committee, said Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, who introduced the bill.

"It’s dead," Espero said Wednesday. "It just was not its time."

However, Espero added that he was encouraged that the effort advanced further than in the past. The bill remains in conference and could be taken up next year, he said.

"I feel there’s another opportunity next session," said Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point).

Espero and other backers say the cameras would protect pedestrians, but the programs have been controversial in other cities such as Los Angeles, which canceled its red-light program in 2011.

Hawaii’s Office of the Public Defender and the American Civil Liberties Union opposed the state’s measure in this year’s session, arguing that the cameras had the potential to mistakenly identify the wrong drivers and the wrong license plates. They also cited privacy issues.

SB 693 did not include a date for the program to take effect.

Earlier this year the bill’s backers said they were optimistic that it had a better chance of passing than in previous years because it was advancing through the Senate, the chamber that has blocked red-light camera proposals in the past.