Florida Supreme Court Allows Cities to Continue to Use Red-Light Cameras

In a unanimous decision, the Florida Supreme Court sided with cities using red-light cameras for issuing traffic citations, concluding that such conduct was constitutional.  Motorists challenged Aventura’s use of red-light cameras as improperly delegating government police functions to private companies operating the red-light cameras.  The Court concluded that Florida law authorizes a local government to contract with a private third-party vendor to review and sort information from red light cameras, in accordance with written guidelines provided by the local government, before sending that information to a trained traffic enforcement officer, who determines whether probable cause exists and a citation should be issued.