Cincinnati Fights Red-Light Cameras

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An activist group is nearly one-quarter of the way toward forcing Cincinnati, Ohio to put the question of red light cameras to voters on the November ballot. The “We Demand Coalition” is a collection of activist groups from the left, right and center of the political spectrum. It held a press conference at city hall yesterday to announce a strong new effort underway to gather the 8000 signatures needed to meet an August deadline to qualify for a ballot initiative. About 2000 residents have already signed.

“Now that the weather’s nice, we’ll be out pounding the pavement,” coalition co-chairman Josh Weitzman told TheNewspaper. “Most people are in support of what we’re doing.”

The coalition is made up of regional chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, Blue Chip Young Republicans, Hamilton County Business Owners and Americans for Prosperity.

Last year, the coalition succeeded in gathering 57,000 signatures needed to defeat a county-wide sales tax increase. Weitzman expects the added manpower will help to gather signatures on the photo ticketing issue at local events and on busy street corners. The group set up a website with additional information at WeDemandAVote.com.

If successful, the petition would likely spell the end of photo enforcement in Cincinnati. A 2006 initiative in the city of Steubenville ended with three out of every four voters rejecting camera ticketing. Between 1991 and 1997, voters in Anchorage, Alaska; Batavia, Illinois and Peoria, Arizona also rejected the systems by significant margins.