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Speed Cameras Bill Won't Advance In 2020 Session

Speed Cameras Bill Won't Advance In 2020 Session
Brandon Smith
Speed Cameras Bill Won't Advance In 2020 Session

Legislation to allow speed cameras in Indiana highway work zones is dead.

Its author opted not to bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate on the chamber’s mid-session deadline day.

The bill would have created a pilot program – speed cameras in four work zones statewide. Tickets would only have been issued if a driver was caught going 11 miles per hour over the limit while workers were present.

But Sen. Jon Ford (R-Terre Haute) didn’t call the bill down for a vote.

“Just didn’t have the votes," Ford says. "Decided to hold it and not to have a big floor debate over it.”

Ford says there are concerns about privacy, whether the penalties should be civil or criminal, and how the cameras would photograph vehicles.

“You know, it’s a big issue with a lot of technology and I think we’re a little slow to technology here in the General Assembly,” Ford says.

Ford says he plans to bring the bill back next year.

Contact Brandon at  bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith has covered the Statehouse for Indiana Public Broadcasting for more than a decade, spanning three governors and a dozen legislative sessions. He's also the host of Indiana Week in Review, a weekly political and policy discussion program seen and heard across the state.
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