Speed Camera Veto Is Decried

Eighty people died in traffic collisions in Montgomery in 2004 -- a record high since the police department started keeping countywide statistics in 1995. The previous high was 66 deaths in 2001. Police say one of the most common causes of fatal accidents is excessive speed.

Montgomery police officials endorsed the speed-camera bill, saying that the department's lean workforce -- the county has one of the lowest officer-per-capita rates in the country -- prevents them from using scarce manpower to crack down on speeders.

"There's no way we could hire enough officers to enforce speeding [laws] throughout the county," said Montgomery County Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg), who chairs the council's public safety committee. "Cameras, though, could substitute and would be very effective at deterring speeding."

Montgomery Del. William A. Bronrott (D), who helped lead the effort to pass the bill in the General Assembly, said there appears to be support to try passing a similar bill next year. The measure passed the House this year 85-42 and the Senate 29-17.

"It was a hard-fought effort to get the bill passed, but I think the combination of the public safety concerns that we conveyed, plus the general acceptance of our plea for local courtesy, led to strong majorities in both houses," Bronrott said. "It was very disappointing to have the bill vetoed."

The cameras have proven to be effective revenue generators. In the District, local officials recently estimated that more than $72 million has been collected by the city's speed camera program since it began in July 2001.

Ehrlich and other critics of the bill opposed the measure in part, they said, because they feared local governments would allow for the unchecked expansion of cameras for purely monetary reasons.

General Assembly policy analysts estimated that the Montgomery speed camera bill would have brought in a net total of $1.8 million in 2006.