Bill Press is a syndicated columnist and the co-host of CNN's Crossfire, which airs Monday-Friday at 7:30 p.m.

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Bill Press: Smile when you run that red light

By Bill Press
Tribune Media Services

WASHINGTON (Tribune Media Services) -- Texas Congressman Dick Armey is leading a new crusade. Now, think fast. What issue could be important enough for the Republican Majority Leader to make his own Number One priority? Medicare reform? Social Security? Campaign finance reform?

Public education?

Energy?

Not even close. On Dick Armey's agenda, those issues pale in significance compared to the big enchilada: traffic lights.

That's right. Armed with his own 23-page report, Armey is waging war against cameras installed at intersections to nab people running red lights. Is this really what we elect members of Congress to spend their time on?

One thing for sure, traffic enforcement cameras are becoming more common today. They proved so successful in New York, 50 cities now use them. More are on the way. For two very good reasons. One, it's impossible to put a cop on every corner. Two, they work.

You run a red light, the camera takes a picture of your car and license plate, you get a ticket in the mail, the next time you think twice. In Washington, D.C., installation of just 39 cameras citywide reduced red light violations by 65 percent; and cut fatalities caused by red light runners by 85 percent.

And surveillance cameras are nothing new. In fact, they're everywhere: office buildings, convenience stores, ATM's, banks, subway stations and parking garages. If it's OK to install a camera in a 7-11 to prevent a robbery, what's wrong with placing a camera at a busy intersection to save lives?

Plenty!, says Armey.

He argues they are a violation of our basic rights of privacy. They let a machine, not a human being, determine guilt or innocence; and they often are rigged -- by reducing the time of the yellow light -- in order to produce more revenue, with camera manufacturers receiving a healthy slice of all revenue from tickets. They are not life-saving devices, insists Armey. They are nothing but cash cows for cities and camera companies.

Now, Armey's right on a couple of points. He's right to raise warnings about surveillance cameras in general. There is, in fact, much potential for abuse. As used in last year's Super Bowl, for example -- to photograph every person entering a sports event -- they are unnecessary and invasive. And he's right to express outrage at manufacturers sharing in ticket booty. Cities should buy cameras outright and capture all the revenue.

But, on everything else, he's dead wrong.

By using a camera to detect speeders and red-light runners, are we trusting a machine to tell us whether someone broke the law? Yes, But, duh. Parking meters are machines, too.

Ever since the days of Henry Ford, we've trusted them to detect parking violations.

By Armey's logic, we'd have to replace meters with a cop standing alongside every parked car, looking at his watch, poised to write a ticket.

Are some yellow lights shorter than others? Yes, but traffic engineers (of which Armey is not) tell us there are so many variables -- speed limit, visibility, circulation, number of lanes, etc. -- there is no one standard time for yellow lights at all intersections.

Besides, Armey misses the point. The problem is not the yellow light. It's the stupid driver who sees a yellow light and hits the gas instead of the brakes. No matter how long the yellow signal lasts, he'll try to beat it, often crossing the intersection on red - until he's caught or kills somebody.

Does having a picture of my license plate taken while I'm running a red light violate my right of privacy? Get serious. No more than security cameras at a bank. We don't have a right to rob a bank. We don't have a right to roar dangerously through an intersection, either. And isn't it ironic that a man who saw no problem with Ken Starr's invasion of Bill Clinton's privacy now claims a right of privacy for traffic scofflaws.

Armey should reread the Constitution.

But first, he should just hop in his car and drive around town. Any town. He will discover that the most dangerous place in America today is sitting at an intersection when the light turns yellow -- and some yahoo comes roaring through, out of nowhere, trying to beat the light.

Some 800 people are killed that way every year, another 200,000 injured. If a camera can nail those idiots, so much the better.

Bottom line: if you're not breaking the law, you've got nothing to worry about.