Speeding Worries Locals as State Bans Camera Enforcement

Street names were flying left and right at last week’s Goose Creek City Council meeting.

One Indigo Lane homeowner asked for help with reckless drivers speeding down her street. The mayor took down the street name as other residents began standing up or just throwing out names of other streets with speeding problems: Mary Scott Drive, Amy Drive, Anita Drive, and Medway Road.

“We’re having a tough time keeping the same level of visibility in our residential areas than we once enjoyed,” said Mayor Mike Heitzler. He suggested citizens get license plate information and contact the city police when they see offenders.

One resident suggested speed cameras. The Town of Ridgeland sparked statewide controversy in the past few months with its camera program along a dangerous section of Interstate 95. Officers had been monitoring the cameras and then mailing speeding tickets to offenders.

“We’ve talked about that for several years,” Heitzler told the crowd, noting that the cost had been an issue. “I know there’s a bill [in the legislature], but it's legal today.”

Within an hour, the state Senate in Columbia gave key approval to a ban on mailing speeding tickets, effectively ending speeding camera enforcement across South Carolina. By the weekend, Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill into law, a move that some say complicates traffic enforcement and ties the hands of local municipalities.

Ninety-nine to one

The talk in Goose Creek City Hall wasn’t the only Berkeley County debate on speed cameras. State Sen. Larry Grooms, a Berkeley County Republican, introduced the ban in the legislature and relished the victory, posting on Twitter, “Speed Camera Scam is shut down for good.”

But Goose Creek Rep. Joe Daning, also a Republican, fell on the other side of the issue. In a key vote on the bill in the House late last month, several legislators didn’t vote at all. Daning was the lone vote opposing the camera ban — it was 99-1.

Daning didn’t support the cameras on the interstate. The key to any speed enforcement program is to create a situation where you’re deterring future speeders. Daning said a program like this on the interstate is only catching out-of-town offenders who don’t know any better.

Instead, a similar program on a community road would put local drivers on notice to slow down. That would also have made it a local issue, impacting one district, as opposed to the statewide attention that Ridgeland’s interstate program received.

Most importantly to Daning, this was an issue of home rule, allowing the government closest to the people to determine how best to govern. Other legislators in Columbia are too swift to ban a local program or ordinance when it upsets them, he said. “We micromanage everybody in this state."