AB 371

This bill allows law enforcement agencies in a first class city (presently only Milwaukee) to use a speed safety camera system (SSCS) to identify speed limit violations and a traffic control photographic system (TCPS) to identify certain traffic signal violations.

Under current law, law enforcement officers may not use any radar device combined with photographic identification of a vehicle to determine compliance with motor vehicle speed limits. Under this bill, a first class city may use an SSCS to determine compliance with speed limits. With exceptions, the vehicle owner is subject to a forfeiture for a speed limit violation detected by an SSCS. However, no traffic citation may be issued for a speed limit violation for which the SSCS indicated a speed of less than 15 miles per hour above the speed limit alleged to be violated. The owner is subject to the same forfeiture that would be applicable to the vehicle operator for the violation. The bill also imposes a number of administrative requirements on a municipality that uses an SSCS to determine compliance with speed limits. The authorization of the use of an SSCS to determine compliance with speed limits expires five years after an SSCS is implemented.

This bill also authorizes a first class city to use a TCPS to detect motor vehicles that fail to properly stop at red traffic signals at intersections. A TCPS is an electronic system that automatically produces photographs of motor vehicles traveling through an intersection. With exceptions, the vehicle owner is subject to a forfeiture for a traffic signal violation detected by a TCPS of not more than the amount provided for a traffic signal violation under current law, currently between $20 and $100. The authorization of the use of a TCPS to detect traffic signal violations expires five years after a TCPS is implemented.

Forfeitures collected under either of these authorizations must be appropriated for the costs of implementing and operating the system and after those costs have been paid may be used only for traffic enforcement, traffic safety programs, and traffic safety infrastructure.