You’ve probably never heard of New Miami, Ohio, a small town in St. Clair Township, Ohio, about 44 miles north of Cincinnati. New Miami, population 2,249, is making news, though, after a judge ordered the hamlet to refund $3,066,523 worth of speeding tickets.
Butler County Court of Common Pleas judge Michael A. Oster Jr. ruled the town’s automatic speed cameras created an unconstitutional law/ordinance that took people’s money without allowing them the necessary due-process protections. According to the court order, not only does the town’s Automated Speed Enforcement Program eliminate a crucial constitutional right, it’s likely the town knew its actions were unconstitutional. U.S. 127, a north-south highway, runs through New Miami and is the primary location where the speed cameras were located according to the court order. It also says that the town’s contract with camera provider Blue Line Solutions (BLS) required the cameras be in operation for a minimum of 100 hours a month, resulting in the town receiving “unjust enrichment” -– every time a driver was nicked, he was mailed a $95 ticket. The town kept 65 percent and BLS got 35 percent. BLS gave the cameras to the town for free, no doubt thinking the investment would pay off.
According to records on file in New Miami, the town rewrote its statutes to cut the criminal justice system and insurance companies from the equation, creating its own speeding law so the town could charge speeding violations under a civil ordinance instead of under the state’s uniform traffic statute.
James Englert, New Miami’s outside counsel handling the case, told the Dayton Daily News that in 2008 the Ohio Supreme Court found that automated traffic programs, red light and speeding camera programs are constitutional. “The village thought that it was acting totally within its constitutional statutory authority,” he said.
The next step comes March 3, when the drivers’ attorneys ask Judge Oster to order the immediate refunds.
