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Speed Cameras Bill Won't Advance In 2020 Session

File photo: Lauren Chapmen
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IPB News

Legislation to allow speed cameras in Indiana highway work zones is dead.

Its author opted not to bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate on the chamber’s mid-session deadline day.

The bill would have created a pilot program – speed cameras in four work zones statewide. Tickets would only have been issued if a driver was caught going 11 miles per hour over the limit while workers were present.

But Sen. Jon Ford (R-Terre Haute) didn’t call the bill down for a vote.

“Just didn’t have the votes," Ford says. "Decided to hold it and not to have a big floor debate over it.”

Ford says there are concerns about privacy, whether the penalties should be civil or criminal, and how the cameras would photograph vehicles.

“You know, it’s a big issue with a lot of technology and I think we’re a little slow to technology here in the General Assembly,” Ford says.

Ford says he plans to bring the bill back next year.

Contact Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.