(The Center Square) — Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux and Chief Administrative Officer Tom Dark testified in Baton Rouge in opposition to Senate Bill 99 concerning traffic cameras during its hearing in front of the House Transportation Committee.
After hearing testimony for and against SB99, ultimately, the committee voted to report the bill as amended.
SB99 was proposed by Sen. Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe, and, among other things, would allow city officials to be charged with malfeasance in office if laws aren’t followed. The bill concerns traffic cameras and citations throughout the state.
Cathey noted he’s heard feedback these are effective tools in some places.
While many officials took the table to speak in opposition to Cathey’s bill, two of those officials were Shreveport’s Arceneaux and Dark.
Arceneaux spoke to the city’s police officer shortage, affecting their ability to add more to monitor speed areas.
“We do not have the officers to flash blue lights to alter behavior,” Arceneaux said. “If we did, we would need 70 police officers in the 70 school zones that we operate in the city of Shreveport, and we simply don’t have those people.”
Dark agreed.
“We celebrated last year when we ended the year with six officers more than we started the year. That was the first time that had happened in about five years,” Dark said. “We do not have the physical ability to send officers to run radar anywhere.”
As of now, the cameras in school zones have been effective in Shreveport, and Arceneaux wants these decisions to remain on a local level.
“We would strongly encourage you to defeat this bill today,” said Dark.
Currently, in Shreveport, there are only speed cameras in school zones. There are no speed cameras in other areas of the city. According to Arceneaux, several city council members have requested additional speed cameras.
City officials have identified 12 areas with “chronic speeders.”
“There were 55,000 folks going more than 11 miles over the speed limit in a week in those locations,” said Arceneaux. Other cameras around the city are blue light cameras connected to crime prevention. These don’t capture speed and are tied to the crime prevention center.
“We have a serious concern about where this bill may go and what it may look like by the time it becomes law if it gets out of this committee,” said Dark.
