Moses Lake attorney challenges traffic cameras
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake attorney is challenging the city’s speeding zone cameras, stating they violate the state law and calling the law allowing them unconstitutional.
Attorney Harold Moberg delivered his arguments in a brief filed in a municipal court concerning a case involving a car owned by Specialty Welding. The car was allegedly going 29 mph in a school zone on South Pioneer Way, when conditions require traffic to slow down to a speed limit of 20 mph.
While the driver was not identified in the municipal court records, the brief states it was driven by an employee of Specialty Welding.
The city installed two traffic cameras in the school zone on South Pioneer Way, near the intersection with Hunter Place, in October 2008. The cameras are designed to spot people speeding while the school zone lights were flashing. The cameras are operated by Redflex, a Melbourne, Australia- based company with offices in Scottsdale, Ariz. Drivers going faster than 20 mph have their license plate photographed and a video filmed of their car.
Moberg stated the state law allowing the cameras, shifts the burden of proof to the registered owner, requiring them to overcome “presumptions of guilt.”
Since the law assumes the cameras are operating correctly, there’s no way to question whether they recorded the correct speed, he said.
“What I believe the end result will be is that the burden of proof should not be put on the registered owner. I think that fundamentally the burden of proof should always be on the state,” he said.
Moberg said when the legislature shifted the burden of proof it, “violated the separation of powers doctrine by invading the prerogatives of the judicial system. It is unconstitutional for the legislature to abdicate or transfer legislative functions.”
He also questioned the $112 fine the city set for his client, stating the state law only allows the city to charge the same as a parking ticket. He pointed to the portion of the state law stating the infraction could not exceed the “amount of a fine issued for other parking infractions within the jurisdiction.”
The Moses Lake ordinance sets the penalty for most parking violations at $20, according to the city’s code.
“The city has unlawfully collected funds from citizens, who were driving in a school zone and ticketed by photo enforcement,” Moberg said.
While Moses Lake City Attorney Jim Whitaker said he wasn’t able to respond to most of Moberg’s allegations yet, he did file a response stating the law allows the city to charge as much as the city’s highest parking fee. The city charges $250 for parking in a parking spot for handicapped drivers or a fire zone.
Moberg’s third argument was Redflex is not allowed to charge based on the amount of fines collected. He said the company uses a sliding scale for how much it charges the city, based on how many tickets are issued.
Whitaker said he plans to contact Redflex and other city attorneys before he files a response in late July.
“I will be contacting some other city attorneys who have had these issues successfully disposed of in other courts. We will file a response with the court before the next hearing,” he said. “Ethically we can’t comment on pending litigation.”