VOLCANIC ASH
Camera system broken; fix it
By David Shapiro
Legislative leaders have promised their session won't be hijacked by emotional side issues, such as gambling and traffic cameras, that steal attention from more pressing goals — balancing the budget, stimulating the economy and rebuilding Hawai'i's school system.
So far, so good on gaming. Lawmakers have rebuffed attempts to use economic damage from Sept. 11 as an excuse to stampede legalization of gambling.
On traffic cameras, it's not so clear where legislators are going.
Election-year pressure to modify or abolish the system is intense as public hostility rages against the state's use of privately run radar cameras to catch speeding drivers.
Democrats and Republicans in the House are on different pages, but at least in the same book, in seeking fair solutions to obvious flaws in the system. Senators, however, are polarized and throwing down fighting words.
Senate Republican leader Sam Slom demands that "Taliban traffic scameras" be shut down at once. Sen. Cal Kawamoto, Democratic transportation chairman, opposes any changes.
Give Slom credit for being the only lawmaker to consistently oppose the traffic cameras as the bills moved through the Legislature over three years. But let's have some perspective. It's inappropriate overstatement, and disrespectful of Sept. 11 terrorism victims, to compare $70 traffic tickets to the brutality of murdering Taliban thugs who slaughtered their own people and abetted the flying of jetliners into our skyscrapers.
And if Republicans want to play partisan politics, they should remember that initial bills allowing traffic cameras passed the House with unanimous GOP consent.
By the same token, it's ludicrous for Kawamoto and the state administration to resist any changes. While discouraging speeding is a noble goal, it's foolish policy and a political death wish to blindly defend a poorly conceived system that will never win public acceptance in its current form.
It makes little sense to shut down the pilot program without learning its potential impact on highway safety. But neither does it make sense to refuse to fix inequities that fatally undermine the experiment.
Top officials of the Transportation Department have ducked accountability, hiding behind spokeswoman Marilyn Kali. Her condescending tone and constant backpedaling have only made matters worse.
But it's more than a public relations problem. The camera system is faulty in important ways.
The state must stop playing coy on the margin of error drivers are allowed. No machines are perfect, and anything close to a "zero tolerance" policy is unacceptable. It would relieve a primary source of aggravation if drivers knew the margin of error.
Since cameras can't identify the offending driver, it's unreasonable to treat camera citations as full-blown violations that affect insurance. They should be treated like parking tickets with no insurance implications.
There's no room for profit motive in fair law enforcement. Paying camera operators by how many tickets they issue breeds public mistrust. Operators should be paid a flat rate.
Hawai'i's speed limits, the slowest in the nation, need review. Cameras should be placed where speeding poses the greatest danger — not in speed traps.
More police involvement is needed to generate public respect. We resent seeing cops with radar guns on the side of the road, but wouldn't dare subject them to the obscenities and rude gestures directed at civilian camera operators.
If lawmakers put partisan politics aside and work together to adjust a system they created together, they can find reasonable solutions and move on to other priorities. Intransigence on either side should carry a price at the polls.
David Shapiro can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.
