Lafayette Council Delays Action On ‘Speed Van’ Citations

We told you on March 5th, the Lafayette City-Parish Council was going to vote on an amnesty program for delinquent traffic camera and Safe Speed tickets. Final approval was to be voted upon at the March 19th meeting.
Drivers would be allowed to pay delinquent tickets without penalty before the implementation a tougher collection policy involving lawsuits.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to delay action, citing questions about sharing revenue from judgements with Redflex Traffic Systems. Redflex is the private contractor operating the automated traffic enforcement program. The company currently receives 40 percent of the fine for traffic camera tickets.
City-Parish Attorney Mike Hebert expressed uncertainty about the question of Redflex having a claim to a share of the revenue after the city-parish government footing court costs associated with collecting the fines.
There are reportedly 16,926 unpaid red light and speeding violations and 11,843 parking tickets from the past three years, totaling about $2 million in uncollected fines and another $1 million in penalties.