East Cleveland to End Traffic Camera Ticketing

East Cleveland city council on Tuesday passed a resolution to end the city's traffic camera ticketing operation. The resolution comes in the aftermath of an Ohio Supreme Court that unanimously upheld a state law for “spending setoffs”.

The law requires “a police officer to be present when traffic cameras are in use”, essentially ending camera ticketing. The “setoffs”, as laid out in the law, reduce state funding by the amount of money a municipality bills drivers through violations caught through traffic cameras.

As the city doesn’t always collect money from traffic citations — many drivers simply ignored citations, meaning cities would have to make a small claim suit in muni court in attempt to collect — the law potentially means a city could lose money. So while East Cleveland issued $2,200,597 in traffic camera fines in 2020, for instance, it collected less than that.

In response to the city’s resolution, councilwoman Patricia Blochowiak commented that camera ticketing isn’t East Cleveland’s biggest priority.

“It’s true that we won’t be losing money on our traffic camera system any more," but that, "Dealing with corruption in government is the number one priority.”

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