Mayor Keith Gaskin’s veto of auto insurance surveillance cameras is unchallenged for now, but at least three members of the council are still open to the idea once they confirm the system is legal to operate.
At its April 5 meeting, Columbus City Council voted 5-1, with Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens casting the lone no vote, to allow Securix to install surveillance cameras in Columbus. The cameras would photograph license plates of passing cars and compare the tag number to a database of insured drivers.
Uninsured drivers would get a citation in the mail and could be sent into a diversion program. Instead of paying a ticket, they would watch a video about insurance, provide proof that they have become insured and pay a $300 fee, which the city would split with Securix.
Gaskin vetoed the decision on April 8. City Attorney Jeff Turnage said at the time that an Attorney General’s Opinion promised by the company did not materialize, and he had requested one on behalf of the city.
A state law passed in 2009 prohibits automatic license plate readers or any video recording device from capturing and ticketing violations of “traffic signals, traffic speeds or other traffic laws, rules or regulations on any public street, road or highway within this state or to impose or collect any civil or criminal fine, fee or penalty.”
As of Tuesday — the first regular council meeting since the veto — the council had not attempted to override the veto. Four votes are required to override, and five members of the council voted in favor of installing the cameras.
Gaskin confirmed Wednesday morning during his press conference that there had been no effort yet to override his veto, but there is no time limit to overturn the veto.
“It’s just like there is no time limit when they table something,” Gaskin said. “They can bring it back up at any time.”
The mayor, however, has only five days after a council meeting to issue a veto.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones, who brought the Securix program to the council at a March 31 work session and issued a public statement April 8 disagreeing with the veto, said he had no plans to try to overturn the veto as of now.
“We’re waiting on the AG’s Opinion, and once we have that we may take another look at it,” he said. “The company said they had an oral (opinion) but we want one in writing. Once we get that we can see how we want to proceed.”
Jones said he still thinks the cameras were a good idea, and Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene agreed.
“The point isn’t to make the streets safer, because just because you have insurance doesn’t mean you drive safe,” Greene said.
“The point is to make somebody follow the law so the 70 percent doesn’t have to overpay because the 30 percent won’t get insurance.”
Greene said nothing he’s heard so far has changed his mind about the cameras being a good idea.
“Right now we’re looking at the legality of it, and if it is in fact legal, I’m not going to change my mind,” he said.
Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard said he, too, is still open to the idea, but he wants to do more research and possibly open the field up to more vendors. He said Rekor Systems, which is the technology vendor that handles identification of uninsured vehicles for the state of Oklahoma, has contacted the city about offering a proposal.
“We’ve been contacted by another company that does the exact same thing, and I would like to hear from them before I make a decision,” Beard said. “We might get a better deal.”
Beard said he doesn’t like the program personally but would vote to support it.
“My personal beliefs are that I don’t like it and I don’t want it, but we are moving into a different society,” he said. “I do want to look more into it and get more information. (Securix) is doing it in Ocean Springs, but that data is for only one city.”
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