In the Bay Area, drivers could soon start racking up speeding tickets without ever getting pulled over, after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a controversial speed camera bill, AB 645, into law over the weekend.
Newsom’s approval marks the end of a nearly two-decade-long battle to bring automatic speed cameras to the state, even as they continue to raise privacy concerns and debate over whether they will help or harm marginalized communities.
The bill will create a six-city pilot program – which includes San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco — for which cameras that track vehicle speed and generate fines will be installed.
The fines begin at $50 for driving 11 mph over the speed limit, and rise to $500 for 100 mph or greater. A first strike will generate a warning, rather than a fine.
Although other cities and states have been using the technology for years, this program, titled the Speed Safety System Pilot Program, is the first time speed cameras will be legal in California. Although they have been considered by the state Legislature more than half a dozen times, this was also the first time that the bill made it to Governor Newsom’s desk.
Advocates of the bill said that it will help save lives, especially in cities like San Jose and Oakland that have seen an increase in traffic fatalities – often involving a vehicle moving at unsafe speeds. According to the bill, a 2017 National Transportation Safety Board study found that similar programs led to reductions in mean speeds, and the likelihood of fatal crashes.
But the bill also has a major equity component in its attempt to decrease the possibility of police violence during traffic stops. The bill text specifically cites “traditional enforcement methods” — i.e., traffic stops — as situations that put drivers of color at risk.
But critics have maintained that the cameras pose privacy concerns, lack due process, and will in fact harm marginalized communities. In September, a broad coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union California Action, Human Rights Watch, and Black Lives Matter CA published an open letter asking Gov. Newsom to veto the bill on the basis of those concerns.
“While we appreciate the author’s worthy intention to reduce traffic fatalities caused by speeding, we are concerned about the approach AB 645 takes to solving the problem,” the coalition wrote.
The group argued that, far from helping marginalized communities, the speed camera scheme would instead serve as a form of “wealth-extraction”, taking money out of the pockets of people who have been impacted by “historically racist urban planning decisions.”
The cameras will likely be installed in high-risk corridors and school zones. Although the new law takes effect in January, it is unclear how quickly the cities will install the cameras, which they are authorized to use under the pilot program until 2032.