Cameras roll as debate rages
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
Jim Quinn is ready for a fight.
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Never mind that Quinn was photographed by one of those speed vans and cited for going 10 mph over the limit on Likelike Highway.
Sen. Bob Hogue wants the program halted for now.
Never mind that his citation had just been upheld at a preliminary hearing in District Court. Never mind that he has to return to court next month for a time-consuming trial.
"I'm still hoping that it will get dismissed," said Quinn, who is self-employed and lives in Mililani. "I'm ready to challenge it all the way."
Like many other Hawai'i residents who hope the state's new traffic photo enforcement program will be swept away by the courts or the Legislature, Quinn has to wait.
After watching a flurry of activity on both fronts, observers now agree it is likely to be mid-April at the earliest before lawmakers or judges will make any major decisions affecting the fate of the camera program.
In the courts, attorneys say most challenges that could be used at the preliminary hearing stage have been raised and dismissed. They expect to bring new, more powerful arguments to the legal front when the first of hundreds of full trials begin April 15.
At the Legislature, competing bills to repeal, or repeal and replace, the photo enforcement law are working their way through the House and Senate.
Lawmakers say it's almost a certainty that differences in the bills will be resolved in conference committee at the end of the session in late April.
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Until then, the cameras are likely to keep operating, generating hundreds of new tickets every week.
Rep. Charles Djou said he expects a lively debate.
The lull in action between now and mid-April will give the program an opportunity to function as originally planned, a pilot effort to see whether the cameras really do slow drivers and reduce accidents, supporters say.
Others suggest the program should be suspended immediately until the outstanding issues are resolved.
"Why not just stop it now until we know what's going to happen?" said Michael Kam, a former city deputy prosecutor now handling traffic cases. "Why keep issuing tickets and having court hearings if it's likely the cases are going to be dismissed eventually? I hate to see all this time and money being wasted."
Kam is confident the camera program will be struck down when it reaches the next legal phase. Unlike the preliminary hearings being held now, prosecutors at the trial stage will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the citation holder was driving the car at the time of the violation.
"That's the big flaw in the system," Kam said. "I'll bet 10-to-1 that they are not going to be able to prove who was driving at the trial stage. The courts are already giving a big hint that they'll demand a higher standard of proof once the trials begin."
Other arguments attorneys are likely to raise include constitutional questions about privacy and the right to confront an accuser as well as questions about how the cameras are operated and how the private camera operator is paid per-ticket by the state.
Several lawmakers also say the program should be halted until the courts make a decision on the program.
"Doesn't it make sense to get all the legal questions answered before we ask the Legislature to decide what to do?" asked Sen. Bob Hogue, R-24th (Kane'hoe, Kailua). "We're already spending too much legislative time on this problem when there are so many other things that need to be fixed."
Hogue said state officials should consider what happened last week in Denver, where officials shut down their traffic photo enforcement program, including the issuance of all new tickets, until problems raised in the court system can be addressed.
"Doing something like that here would give us time to go back to the drawing board and start all over again," Hogue said.
Another legislative critic of the cameras, Rep. Charles Djou, R-47th (Kahalu'u, Kane'ohe) thinks the lull between now and mid-April may allow the camera program to gain some acceptance.
"We've gotten hundreds of letters and e-mail opposed to the cameras, but people have to keep the pressure up on their legislators," he said.
Even though decision-making in the Legislature appears far down the line, the debate over cameras is still likely to be lively in coming weeks, Djou said.
This week, both the full Senate and House are likely to vote on their respective photo enforcement bills, then move them along to the other house, where the debates will start over.
None of that matters much to Quinn and hundreds of other people who still have to answer their citations in court or face increasing fines.
"It's all so bogus," Quinn said. "It's not just the fine, but my insurance that I'm worried about. I don't mind spending the time to fight it. I've got lots of arguments I want to bring up."
On Thursday, District Judge Leslie Hayashi set Quinn's trial for late April, about the same time the Legislature will start final debate on changes to the photo enforcement law.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
