Nassau County’s red light camera ticket fees were determined to be illegal by the New York State appellate division court on Nov. 27. Now, Elmont residents are demanding to have their money returned, along with transparency as to where the fees collected from the red-light camera program have been spent since it began over a decade ago.
Emmanuelle Jeanlouis, an Elmont resident who has received two red light tickets since 2022, said she paid $150 per ticket.
In Nassau County, red light camera tickets are $50. But, with the $100 “driver responsibility” and “public safety” fees attached, the total ticket amount is $150.
“It’s like a bogus scam,” Jeanlouis said. “Why does the county think this makes sense, and why do we have to be the ones going through this financial burden? $150 is a lot of money.”
Carol Garrick, also of Elmont, said the fees are exorbitant. “What kind of fee is two times as much as the infraction itself?” she asked.
County Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton said during a Dec. 9 news conference that it was time for the county to reimburse drivers. “The whole point of the red-light camera system was for safety,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “This was not supposed to be a revenue generating option.”
Jeanlouis said not only does she want reimbursement, she wants to know where the money the county collected since the beginning of the program has been spent.
“I would love to know what they are doing with the money,” she said. “When it comes to Elmont, we don’t have safe places for our children to go, or spaces we can socialize to build community. So, what is there for the county to do besides just take our money? It doesn’t benefit me, my family, my friends, nobody.”
Seth Koslow, a legislator for Nassau County, expressed the same concern as Jeanlouis during the Dec. 9 conference.
“Where has the money gone?” Koslow asked. “We still see potholes everywhere; we still have traffic issues. Why is it not benefitting the county?”
In response, the Democratic caucus proposed a bill called the Fair Fees Accountability Act, which included three sections to address these concerns repealing illegal fees, refunding drivers, and ensuring transparency.
Jeanlouis wants to know why red-light cameras are set up at certain locations. She questioned whether or not these locations made sense and truly increased traffic safety, or if it was about maximizing profit.
“Somebody purposely goes around and looks at these locations,” she said. “And then they say, ‘Okay, this is the best place to put it because people won’t be able to fight it.’”
Garrick raised concerns about cameras placed at lights that allow residents to turn right on red, which is where she received her tickets. “It wasn’t me just blowing through a red light,” she said.
Both Jeanlouis and Garrick said drivers in Elmont are accustomed to making right turns on red, and they believe the reason the cameras are placed at those lights is because no one expects the cameras to go off at that point.
In addition, Jeanlouis said fighting a red-light ticket is not a convenient process for those who work. She said the date and time she was given was during regular working hours, and she could not take time off work just for the possibility the court couldn’t get to her case that day.
Garrick said at the time she received her tickets, she was still working and could not find the time to fight the ticket, either.
“I really did not have time to pursue something like that,” she said. “Especially since there’s no guarantee you’re going to get a break from them anyway. So then, you’ve lost a day and you’re still paying a fine.”
Jeanlouis said if residents are not making a certain salary, or if they don’t have paid time off, it’s not realistic for them to show up and fight the tickets. She said she would like the county to accommodate people who work by offering dates and times after regular working hours.
“If it’s something where we’re advocating for our rights, they should have more hours after a certain time,” she said.
Garrick said she sees the county fighting to have these excess funds returned to drivers, but she isn’t sure if that’s an expectation or just a hope of hers at this point. “It would be very nice to get a check for several hundred dollars,” she said. “But beyond that, I don’t know.”
Jeanlouis said she’s seen speculation on social media that some county politicians are looking into whether or not they can reimburse drivers, as well.
“I would love to be first on the list to get a reimbursement,” she said. “The little bit that we get in our paychecks as salary, especially when we’re not even getting proper raises, for the county to just go out and take it, it makes no sense.”