TO: Mayor and Members of City Council
THRU: N/A
FROM: Lachelle H. Pulliam, City Attorney
DATE: March 13, 2025
RE:
Title
Feasibility of SafeLight (Red-Light Camera) Program Re-implementation
end
COUNCIL DISTRICT(S):
Council District(s)
All
b
Relationship To Strategic Plan:
Goal I - The City of Fayetteville will be a safe and secure community.
Executive Summary:
Through a consensus vote at its January 6, 2025 Work Session, the City Council directed staff to determine the feasibility of re-implementing the SafeLight Program, commonly referred to as the red-light camera program. In doing so, Public Services and the City Attorney's Office conducted research and identified peer cities that shared past and ongoing legal challenges with their respective programs. Therefore, it is recommended that the City wait until all associated litigation is resolved before continuing to determine the feasibility of re-implementing the program.
Background:
N.C. Gen. Stat. ? 160A-300.1 authorizes cities to adopt ordinances for the civil enforcement of violation of traffic laws through a traffic control photographic system. The constitutionality of this law has been challenged in at least two cases of note, Fearrington v. Greenville, (No.89PA22), and Evans v. Wilmington. In the Greenville case, the NC Supreme Court examined whether the plaintiffs had taxpayer standing to challenge a city's red-light camera program, and whether the framework used to fund that camera program violates Article IX, sec. 7 of North Carolina's Constitution. The Court determined that the funding framework did not violate the NC Constitution.
In November 2022, the City of Fayetteville was sued for operation of its program but the Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed its claims against the City after the Supreme Court's decision in the Greenville case. Fayetteville ended its program while the litigation was pending.
The Wilmington case is still pending and is being challenged because t...
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