“Photo Enforced,” read well over 100 signs across the five western Suffolk towns for almost fifteen years, signalling that the controlled intersections through which drivers were about to pass would ticket them if they ran the red light or did not properly stop before making a right on red.
Although the suit is still in litigation, County officials fully expect Suffolk to be on the hook for the upwards of $150 million essentially extorted from Suffolk taxpayers in the form of a $30 administrative fee, more than the $50 fine for which Suffolk was approved by Albany. County Legislators Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville) and Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) led the charge under the administration of former County Executive Steve Bellone (D-West Babylon) and the Democratic-led Legislature until the horseshoe swapped party hands in 2021. Despite the alarm sounding from Piccirillo and Trotta, Bellone and company moved forward with the $30 fee.
A solution to start paying down that gargantuan bill: auction off the red light camera “Photo Enforced” signs to the public.
Given that there’s such a limited amount of these signs, and there’s no telling how much each could fetch at auction, but any auction money earned from these signs would likely be a drop in the bucket based on how much the County will have to return to its drivers.
However, this move would be more symbolic, as the countless residents who were unfairly surveilled and taxed due to this program can finally have the last laugh. We think these signs would carry a decent price tag at auction, given just how many were committed to seeing the end of this program from the minute it began in 2010.
While an auction certainly wouldn’t come close to solving Suffolk’s anticipated reimbursement, it would be a poetic way of ushering the program out the door along with the year. We can also imagine a decent number of residents who would love to add one of those signs to their outdoor pergola bars, their basement or den lounges, or any stereotypical “man cave.”
And, for what it’s worth, we think it’s entirely possible that these signs would be worth more at an auction than they would be as scrap metal.
Furthermore, as we expressed in our editorial last week, the end of this program is far more historic than other media outlets would have you believe. Fines and taxes are typically written in stone, and to see one end is an upset of conventional governmental, political, and civic wisdom. Moreover, it sets a precedent with other programs that residents feel contribute to the “surveillance state,” such as the school bus cameras and highway speed cameras. And finally, it shows that good, honest government is obtainable and that the sage wisdom of career politicians isn’t always worth the press release it’s printed on.
The Department of Public Works (DPW) should explore this option once all of the signs are removed and accounted for. If the signs are worth more in scrap metal than they are in auction dollars, then we would endorse the pragmatic decision over the theatrical one.
But if the signs don’t bring much value to a scrap metal stockpile, and if it isn’t a financial headache to host an auction, we think we many Suffolk County residents, once vexed by the program and now redeemed by a Republican government body who made good on their campaign pledges, wouldn’t balk at an opportunity to keep a piece of history for themselves.
