Several isle lawmakers say they don't want to see traffic cameras on Maui

The Maui News
Thursday, February 7, 2002

By MARK ADAMS
Staff Writer

HONOLULU - As three Senate committees get ready to vote today on a bill that would repeal the state's pilot traffic camera program, several Maui legislators are giving the cameras a big red light.

They also don't want to see the program expanded to Maui County, as the state Department of Transportation originally planned to do this summer. "I'd like to see the program repealed mostly because it's very distasteful to basic tenets of democracy," Sen. J. Kalani English said Wednesday.

"People feel like they're being followed, like they're being watched. I trust our people to do the right thing, and this program presupposes that we can't trust people."

Sen. Jan Yagi Buen also thinks the brakes should be applied. "It's a big problem - it's flawed and it's just not working," she said.

Buen said she also won't support the call of Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Cal Kawa-moto for a moratorium on the camera program until the first speeders challenge their tickets in court later this month.

"I am for the repeal," she said. "I can't see how the moratorium will help."

State Rep. Kika Bukoski won't support expanding the program to Maui in any form, and said he thinks it should be abandoned in Hawaii.

Bukoski said he was struck speechless by a recent contention from Affiliated Computer Services, the company that runs the pilot program, that the cameras will actually prevent accidents.

"These cameras do not stop accidents from happening," he said. "If someone is passing a van at 100 mph, what can the camera do? They'll get a ticket in the mail a week later."

Bukoski said there are states where surveillance cameras are in place on every corner in downtown areas.

"I definitely think there is an issue of the slippery slope," he said. "Is this the kind of state we want to create? It's almost like living in a fishbowl.

"I just don't support it at all," Bukoski said. "If we allow cameras for speeding and red-light running, what's to stop us from using them for littering and jaywalking - where will it stop?"

Bukoski said he has introduced several bills that will keep the program from expanding to the Neighbor Islands and has met with Maui County Council members and the mayor to discuss the issue.

He is also offering an alternative bill that would allow the counties to tack on a surcharge to speeding tickets to pay for beefed-up traffic enforcement, be it through more police officers or a few traffic motorcycles.

Sen. English said he also has a basic problem with the concept of using cameras to keep track of citizens, saying there are civil liberties at stake.

"In a free country we have the right to move unhindered," English said. "I'm looking at it as a real balancing act - public safety versus civil liberties and civil rights. Yes, safety is important, but not at the cost of civil rights."

English said at the very least he wants to make sure the program never gets to the Neighbor Islands.

"I think the general public will settle for nothing less than its repeal," he said.

State Rep. Chris Halford sees a home-rule issue in the debate, and said the counties should be the ones to decide what they want to do.

"No speeding-ticket scheme should come to Maui County without County Council approval and rules being developed with the input of the public," he said.

"I think the Legislature needs to learn that local communities can manage their problems a lot better than our centralized government. We're learning that lesson again."

Even a lukewarm supporter of the traffic camera program was not enthusiastic about bringing the camera vans to Maui.

"I would eventually support that when they work out all the bugs," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Joseph Souki.

But Souki said his committee will hear a bill next Wednesday that attempts to fix some of the major problems the public has with the program.

"The bill would largely be to amend and repair, rather than to repeal," Souki said.

Among facets of the program he would like to change is setting up a flat fee for the company running the program instead of paying it by the number of tickets issued. Souki would also like to address concerns of car owners who fear escalating insurance costs will result from tickets given to their vehicle when they weren't even driving.

Souki said he has received "a good number" of e-mails and letters from people opposed to the program.

He also finds it interesting that legislators who voted to enact the pilot program are now reversing their positions after a vocal public outcry.

"Ninety-five percent of them voted for it, and now they're all bailing out," Souki said with a laugh. "It's an election year."

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