Thousands Of Speed Camera & Red Light Tickets Will Be Voided

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Thousands of Baltimore drivers won't have to pay red light or speed camera citations after the city announces it's voiding 6,000 tickets.

Monique Griego has more on the reason behind the move.

None of the cameras in Baltimore City is even issuing tickets because of problems reported with this new system. Now as far as the thousands of citations being thrown out, they date back to last year, and the city says they simply don't have what it takes to fight them.

Speeding drivers in Baltimore catch a big break.

This week, the city announced it's voiding thousands of speed and red light camera tickets because of issues with its former vendor.

The move marks another dent in a system plagued by problems.

"They have to do what's right. If there's a problem, they have to honor it," said John Rhodes, driver.

City transportation leaders say 6,000 citations of drivers who appealed their convictions are being thrown out. For the city, that means giving up the chance to collect more than $300,000 in revenue.

The reason? Acting Transportation Director Frank Murphy says the city is still trying to obtain evidence on the cases from its former vendor--Xerox State and Local Solutions.

"We don't want to waste the court's time or the individual's time to say if we don't have everything to move forward with the prosecution of the tickets," said Murphy.

News of the group dismissal comes just days after the city shut down the entire system because of problems with the new vendor.

Transportation leaders say a single camera wasn't calibrated right, so they decided to void all of the more than 500 tickets it had issued.

"We're going through a series of checks to make sure everything is right before we start up," said Murphy.

Despite the problems, Murphy says there are no plans to scrap the cameras. While drivers understand the safety benefits of cameras, many no longer trust the system.

"I think broadly I'd like to see them reevaluated all together," said Rhodes.

"When they're not working and people are getting false tickets, there's seriously a problem," said Cyreeta Curbeam, driver.

The city does not know when the cameras will be up and running again. As for people who paid their tickets, those cases are considered closed.  The voided tickets are only for people who appealed their notices and were waiting for court dates.

This month, city courts also threw out an additional 600 tickets due to lack of evidence.