Sugar Land Resident Takes Aim at Red Light Cameras

SUGAR LAND, TX -- Red light cameras that are designed to provide a public safety service are causing a bit of a stir in Sugar Land.

Since 2007, the red light camera system has been in place at nine intersections in Sugar Land as a way of encouraging driver compliance with traffic laws, and the results have been impressive.

Over the last couple of years alone, the number of people running red lights is down 58 percent, and in just the last three years, the fees collected from violators totals close to $6 million.

But, some people feel differently about the use of red light camera, and in many communities in Greater Houston, the use has been challenged.

In 2013, The City of Houston ceased using their red light cameras and had them removed, followed by Jersey Village in 2015.

Tomball considered taking their cameras down, but they are still up and in use.

The dig against the cameras is that some view the cameras as an invasion of privacy and little more than an avenue for a city to extort money from the driving public.

That’s the way Sugar Land resident Helwig Van Der Grinten views those red light cameras.

In fact, Van Der Grinten hates the idea of red light cameras and is doing everything he can to fight back.

Right now Van Der Grinten and his group, the Houston Coalition Against Red Light Cameras, plan to file a class action lawsuit against the city of Sugar Land, claiming the red-light cameras are illegal.

“It’s extortion. It’s scaring people into paying when they don’t have to," Van Der Grinten said.

While the citations may come from a municipality, if the driver does run a red light where cameras are present, they don’t have to pay, they won’t have a warrant issued for their arrest and they won’t have their credit damaged or dinged if they refuse to pay the fine or subsequent late fee.

Of course, if the cameras are not used and an officer stops you for running a red light, that’s a completely different story.

“Look, we don’t have an officer at every intersection. But if that same officer, a physical officer, is out there to issue you a citation for that, that’s a criminal offense,” Sugar Land Police Chief Douglas Brinkley told KPRC.

Image: Shutterstock