(a) The City of Bessemer, Alabama, by ordinance, may provide for the implementation of an automated traffic safety system within the city as provided for in this part.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(1) Vehicles that violate traffic control regulations and signage have been and are a dangerous problem in the City of Bessemer, Alabama.
(2) Studies have found that automated traffic camera enforcement in a municipal area is a highly accurate method for detecting violations of traffic control regulations and signage and is very effective in reducing the number of traffic violations and decreasing the number of traffic accidents, deaths, and injuries.
(3) Current Alabama law provides that failing to stop and remain stopped at a traffic-control signal which is emitting a steady red signal is a criminal misdemeanor. Current Alabama law also provides that failing to abide by traffic signage or speed limits is also a criminal misdemeanor. Under Alabama law one who commits any of these misdemeanors is subject to prosecution only if the misdemeanor was witnessed by either a duly empowered police officer or other witness who makes a verified complaint to a sworn magistrate.
(4) A reduction in the number of drivers exceeding speed limits and running red lights and stop signs through a program utilizing photographic evidence and enforcement through the imposition of civil fines will help promote and protect the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of the City of Bessemer. A duly enacted local act of the Legislature could grant to the City of Bessemer the authority to establish a program to enforce traffic signal violations, stop sign violations, and speeding violations by the use of photographic evidence and the imposition of civil fines.
(5) By providing for the use of automated traffic cameras in traffic signal enforcement, stop sign enforcement, and speed limit enforcement in the City of Bessemer, the Legislature expects to decrease the occurrence in the city of traffic signal violations, stop sign violations, and speeding violations.
Last modified: May 3, 2021