Speed cameras banned in Ohio counties, townships

Yahoo

02-04-2025

BOSTON TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WJW) – Counties and townships across Ohio can no longer use speed enforcement cameras.
The ban comes with the governor's signature on an $11 billion transportation budget bill, but it does not prevent cities and villages from continuing to use them.
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The news comes less than five months after Boston Township in Summit County started using the cameras.
The township, which extends from Boston Mills Ski Resort south to just above Blossom Music Center and from Richfield east to Cuyahoga Falls, insists the cameras were not used to bring in a cash windfall.
'Last month, February, not March, we had maybe fifty tickets issued, that's it, this is not a big thousand tickets a month thing,' said Board of Trustees Chairperson Amy Anderson, who has lived in the township all of her life.
'I can remember four Fatalities on Kendall Park Road, and it's not a big road; speed was a part of them,' she told Fox 8 News.
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'This was just one more tool that we had to try to get people going the speed limit and keep everybody safe,' said Trustee Randy Bergdorf, recalling a high-speed pursuit near the ski resorts that police ended because it threatened cyclists and others using the parks. 'It was just one other method. They were still doing the traditional pull them over but we had another option to try to help with the safety.'
The objection was written into the bill by Ohio Senator Al Cutrona of Canfield in Mahoning County.
'My constituents in my district, my neck of the state, are very frustrated with this type of practice that has been going on,' Cutrona said.
'It has nothing to do with public safety and it's nothing more than a money grab, so I wanted to be able to change that,' he told Fox 8 News on Tuesday.
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The ban was added to House Bill 54, a lengthy budget bill in which one simple line addresses the cameras, on page 96 of the 227-page document.
'No county, township, or representative of a county or township shall utilize a traffic law photo monitoring device to detect and enforce traffic law violations,' he said.
What frustrates trustees here, however, is that the cameras are not banned in cities and villages.
That includes the village of Peninsula, in Bostown Township, where the use of speed cameras has been the focus of harsh criticism.
FOX 8's I-Team revealed how the village was issuing thousands of camera enforcement tickets.
'The Ohio constitution has a provision in there that we call home rule, which would prevent us from being able to legislate something in those cities,' said Cutrona.
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The Township contracts with the village of Peninsula to do its camera enforcement.
Bergdorf is also concerned that the ban was, what he calls, a 'last-second' add to the budget bill giving them almost no time to provide testimony arguing against it.
'You couldn't even, if you wanted to, get down to Columbus and testify in person and we barely got written testimony in,' he told Fox 8 News.
The senator disagrees, saying he started discussing the ban in previous legislative sessions.
All parties involved agree on one fact, insisting they do not advocate for anyone to speed or to drive dangerously.
But the trustees insist their use of the portable cameras does not add a windfall to the township's coffers. It helps compensate the officers who are patrolling the roads in a township where a large amount of the property is a national park.
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'Obviously, when you are trying to police the roads, it has to be paid for and our situation out here is 92% of the community is tax exempt, so there's not a lot of revenue,' Bergdorf said.
'50 tickets are not going to make or break the township, so the money isn't a factor,' said Anderson, who is not yet sure if they will have any legal remedy to challenge the ban.
'You know, frankly, if its a conversation they want to continue to have, we can always have that. Its called the Ohio Revised Code, you can always revise it and make changes,' Cutrona said. 'I don't know if there is a single one of my constituents who feels these are necessary.'
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