Mayor Keith Gaskin announced Friday he is vetoing the city council’s decision to install cameras that would help police identify and ticket drivers with no vehicle insurance.
The council voted 5-1 on Tuesday to contract with Ocean Springs-based Securix for the cameras that would photograph the license plates of passing drivers. Those tag numbers would be compared with a database to see if the vehicle was insured, and if not, a police officer would send the driver a citation. Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens, who represents Ward 2, was the lone opposing vote.
Drivers who are cited can take their chances in court or pay a $300 fee and enter a diversion program that will require them to provide proof of insurance and to watch an educational video about the need for auto insurance. The city and the company will split the fee.
The program would come at no cost to the city, and Securix would reimburse city police officers who write the tickets to the tune of $25 an hour.
Gaskin cited both legal and ethical grounds for his veto. He said among his worries are that the technology would disproportionately punish the poor, and he does not believe the technology would encourage more citizens to comply with the law.
“Every person who drives a vehicle should have insurance, per state law,” Gaskin’s official statement reads. “However, fining a driver for lack of such insurance will not likely result in the purchase of more insurance policies.”
A state law passed in 2009 prohibits automatic license plate readers or any video recording device from capturing and ticketing violations of speeding or running a red light. Robert Wilkinson, city attorney for Ocean Springs — which uses the technology — who also represents Securix, told the council on Tuesday and at a work session last week that an Attorney General’s Opinion limited that law to those circumstances and therefore did not prohibit using those methods to enforce vehicle insurance laws.
Both Gaskin and City Attorney Jeff Turnage said the city has found no “official” AG Opinion to that effect, something Gaskin cites in his veto.
“I’m not picking sides (between the mayor and council), but I want to make sure it’s legal,” Turnage told The Dispatch on Friday.
At least two-thirds of the council, four members, must vote to override the veto, meaning Tuesday’s voting margin will be more than enough to do it. This is Gaskin’s fourth veto of a council vote since he took office July 1. The council has overridden each of the previous three.
See full coverage in Sunday’s print edition.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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