Around a dozen community members showed up for public comment at the Coralville City Council meeting Tuesday night to share their concerns about resident privacy should the city begin using license plate reader cameras.
Iowa is one of 31 states in the U.S. that requires vehicles to have two license plates displayed while driving — one on the front and one on the back of the car — with very few exceptions.
The Cedar Rapids Police Department recently finished installing 70 stationary license plate reader cameras, which scan license plates and run them through national crime databases to search for missing person alerts, stolen vehicle reports, and arrest warrants.
Also, under a proposed bill, the death penalty could be used for killing a law enforcement officer
Lobbyists for cities and traffic camera companies said the companies’ work is more efficient than government and ultimately saves taxpayers
The city of Marion has submitted a request to the Iowa Department of Transportation to appeal its initial denial of five stationary traffic cameras and two locations for mobile traffic cameras.
The city of Cedar Rapids has submitted an appeal to the Iowa Department of Transportation to approve the use of two automated traffic enforcement cameras that were rejected last month.
The Iowa Department of Transportation this week rejected permit applications for most of the automated traffic enforcement cameras used to catch speeding around the state, but the rejected cameras can still be used for red light enforcement.
The Cedar Rapids cameras that were denied permits issued more than 64,000 citations in 2023; city leaders have not yet said how they will replace funding from citations that supports police positions
The DOT on Monday approved only 11 fixed automated traffic enforcement cameras across the state while denying requests for 128 others
Changes to Iowa’s special education system, regulations on consumable hemp and new procedures for traffic cameras are set to take effect July 1.
A new bipartisan law would regulate the technology
A new state law requires Iowa local governments to obtain a permit to continue using automated traffic enforcement cameras beyond Oct. 1
Listen to a recap of this week in Iowa politics with journalists from The Gazette and Lee papers
The new law does not ban traffic cameras, but does require communities to provide data-driven proof that they are needed to increase traffic safety
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