Cover photo: Legislators announce the end of the red light camera program (Credit – Matt Meduri)
Suffolk County’s red light camera program is no more.
The controversial and widely-panned plan was implemented fourteen years ago. A $30 administrative fee was tacked on two years ago, against the advice of Suffolk County Legislators Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville) and Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga), who have made their combat of this program a key issue during their tenures.
The initial plan was straightforward: cameras were installed at hundreds of intersections deemed to pose higher crash risks to drivers with the intention of curbing crashes, injuries, and fatalities due to drivers running red lights.
The two key problems that have been discussed for the last decade-and-a-half have been the increase of rear-end crashes at these intersections – as well as dangers to pedestrians and bicyclists – and the tacit acceptance of a surveillance state.
“The concentration of these cameras in lower-class and working-class neighborhoods force these residents to unfairly bear the burden of an overreaching government trying to generate revenue for budget support,” said Legislator Piccirillo at a Monday press conference at the corner of Patchogue-Holbrook Road and Furrows Road in Holbrook. The intersection was chosen as the site to deliver the news of the historic end to the program due to its massive increase in rear-end collisions. At about a 300% increase, Piccirillo says that increase is more of a median figure, indicating other intersections have seen much sharper increases.
“After the illegal $30 administrative fee was repealed in 2022, thanks to Legislator Trotta and our colleagues for supporting the bill, this program wasn’t generating revenue for the County,” said Piccirillo.
The $30 administrative fee was deemed illegal due to the fact that the State did not permit surcharges above the $50 fine the County was authorized to levy.
“Legislator Trotta and I put the bill in to end the $30 fee in 2022. The County has been collecting it for two years now, but we’re probably looking at around $167 million that the County will have to pay back, depending on how the court rules,” Piccirillo told The Messenger.
Piccirillo adds that the parameters of such a payback are still at the court’s discretion, which could entail a class-action lawsuit or individual reimbursements.
“This was taxation by citation,” said Legislator Trotta (pictured above). “There’s no mistake about it.”
Joining Piccirillo and Trotta were other members of the Suffolk County Legislature, Trish Bergin (R-East Islip), Jim Mazzarella (R-Moriches), Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset), Chad Lennon (C-Rocky Point), Dominick Thorne (R-Patchogue), Stephanie Bontempi (R-Centerport), Deputy Presiding Officer Steve Flotteron (R-Brightwaters), and Majority Leader Nick Caracappa (C-Selden). Assemblyman Doug Smith (R-Holbrook) was also in attendance.
Speaking for the Senate delegation, Senator Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) (pictured below) discussed the curiosity of the absence of the cameras on the East End.
“I think it’s a testament to what this program was all about. None of us are against any measure that improves public safety, even in the slightest bit, but this was certainly a money-grab,” said Palumbo, whose district covers the northern half of Brookhaven, as well as the five eastern towns. Palumbo said the only cameras in his district were in the Town of Brookhaven.
“We’re glad to see that it’s ended,” said Palumbo, adding that the goal-oriented research, while accurate in that the program reduced t-bone accidents, the cameras actually made the intersections more dangerous, with upticks in rear-end collisions being the primary culprit.
“When you’re in government, your job is to protect the people, not attack their wallets,” said Legislator Thorne (pictured below). “In my district alone, we’ve seen 70% increases in rear-end collisions at two intersections. It’s atrocious that the prior administration put this in and I’m proud to stand with my colleagues to make it safer and more affordable here in Suffolk County.”
The reference is to the administration of former County Executive Steve Bellone (D-West Babylon), who served as County Executive from 2012 until the end of 2023. Bellone worked with a Democratic-majority Legislature until the Republicans flipped control of the horseshoe in 2021. No Democratic elected officials attended the press conference on Monday.
“The Legislators here are doing exactly what they said they were going to do when they got elected,” said Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico (R-Center Moriches) (pictured below), contrasting the Legislators with other elected officials, who “campaign in poetry.”
“Whether you’re in Town or County government, we should be honest about what it costs to run a government, not jack up administrative fees, not just grab endlessly into the pockets of taxpayers,” said Panico.
“We warned the prior [Bellone] administration and the prior Legislature that the $30 administrative fee was illegal and that the County would have to pay back that money to the taxpayers,” said Piccirillo. “Now, here we are as a responsible government ending ‘taxation by citation,’ but we’re stuck with the sins of the former County Executive and we have to pay back all the money they took to balance the budget.”
The question now turns to the budget, with Piccirillo saying that since “the adults are in charge,” the Legislature has been able to produce a “fiscally conservative budget.”
“We hired one hundred new police officers with this year’s budget,” said Piccirillo.
The camera equipment belongs to the third-party company and will be handled by them, not the County. This aspect of the program, Legislator Trotta says, only added insult to injury.
“A lot of the taxpayers’ money was going out of state to a company that doesn’t even operate in New York. 45% of the money was leaving New York State,” said Trotta. “How is that helping the taxpayers here? That’s what mismanagement of government is.”
A bicyclist passed by the press conference, applauding the end of the program.
“These red light cameras are brutal; drivers just slam on their brakes. I try to obey all traffic laws, but it’s not safe when people are speeding through intersections to not get caught by the cameras,” Tom Bennett, of Holbrook, an avid bicyclist and Long Island resident for over fifty years.
“I’m taking my life into my hands; I’m thrilled to see these damn things go,” Bennett told The Messenger.
Bennett says that he’s had close calls with vehicles dozens of times, including a couple of instances in which his bicycle was clipped by vehicles.
While the cameras have been deactivated, drivers who were hit with tickets before December 1 will still have to pay them.
