Santa Maria city leaders are considering bringing back red light cameras at certain intersections under a new state law aimed at improving public safety.
The city council is being asked to move the idea forward, though no specific locations have been selected yet.
The city previously had cameras at intersections like Stowell Road and Miller Street between 2007 and 2009. The program ended after the vendor filed for bankruptcy.
Now, a new state law is changing how these programs can operate.
"The California legislature passed a law where municipalities can go through a civil process to enforce traffic offenders," said Santa Maria Police Chief Christopher Williams.
Chief Williams said that under the new law, the liability now falls on the vehicle's registered owner rather than the driver.
"I know some of the cities that had to go through the judicial process and I kind of briefly spoke about how difficult it is identifying who the driver was because you don't have it, you just have the registered owner. The registered owner is under no obligation to say who was driving their vehicle, so then you basically don't have any way to prove who the driver was," he said.
As the city considers reviving the program, drivers are already divided.
"That's also another incentive for people to drive carefully and behave logically when on the road because most of the accidents happen in parking lots and intersections, and if they can catch a few of the bad actors, that's great. I don't have a problem with that," Marc Merritte said.
Others say they question whether cameras would actually change behavior.
"I don't think they have very much of an effect. I think a lot of people like me still think the cameras are working and even if they weren't, they wouldn't change their behavior," Dixie Arthur said.
Community members also raised privacy concerns.
"The state of California prohibits us from sharing any information with federal immigration enforcement or any federal agency, period," Williams said.
While the program could generate revenue, Williams said that is not the goal.
"The ultimate goal is to reduce traffic collisions and fatalities and increase public safety," Williams said.
