Honolulu Traffic Cams May Soon Ticket For Registration, Safety Checks

The automated traffic enforcement camera systems that now issue tickets for speeding and running red lights may soon be used to crack down on Hawaiʻi motorists with expired safety checks and expired vehicle registrations.

The state House earlier this month gave tentative approval to those expanded uses of the cameras as part of House Bill 2033, a sweeping, eight-part transportation measure that would also authorize placing additional cameras at any “high-risk” intersections on county or state roadways.

The high-tech cameras have already been deployed at 10 downtown Honolulu intersections, and those camera systems have been issuing citations for speeding and red-light violations since Nov. 1.

HB 2033 would also authorize cameras on school buses to document violations when motorists overtake buses that are stopped with their lights flashing to allow children to board or disembark.

House Transportation Committee Chair Darius Kila said he gets calls every week from constituents complaining about motorists whose registration stickers expired years ago.

“It’s one thing to have your registration be (expired) a year or maybe even two, but in my community specifically I’ve seen registrations and safety check stickers that are from 2016, or 2009,” said Kila, who represents the Leeward Oʻahu communities of Nānākuli and Māʻili.

The worst case scenario, Kila said, is having an accident with a motorist with expired registration and outdated contact information on the old registration. “It allows the person to just disappear without notice,” he said.

Kila has also backed a separate bill — Senate Bill 2697 — that would authorize police to impound vehicles when the registration has been expired for more than three years.

Use of cameras for automated traffic citations is still a relatively new practice in Hawaiʻi. Cameras at the 10 Honolulu intersections only began issuing citations for red-light violations in 2022.

House Bill 2033 was requested by the state Department of Transportation, which submitted written testimony explaining that “these technologies have proven effective in other jurisdictions in improving compliance with traffic laws and reducing accidents.”

Shelly Kunishige, communications manager for DOT, said the cameras now in use at the 10 Honolulu intersections can read safety checks, but do not capture images with enough resolution to ticket for expired registration decals.

Instead, if HB 2033 passes Kunishige said ticketing for both expired registration and expired safety checks as well as for speeding a red-light violations would be launched at other intersections using higher resolution cameras.

The department is currently evaluating where cameras should be placed next, she said, and will schedule educational periods and issue warning citations before the cameras begin issuing citations at any new locations.

The only person from the public to testify on HB 2033 so far is community advocate Nikos Leverenz. He raised concerns about how the data collected by cameras might be used, and who would be most affected by the crackdown.

Leverenz warned the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee last month that “experiences on the continent demonstrate the use of street speed cameras disproportionately impact those from under-resourced communities.”

He also said the state lacks clear guidelines or laws addressing how the camera footage is to be retained and used, and who can get access to that data. He pointed to Washington State as a jurisdiction that has taken a more cautious approach to the issue with its driver privacy bill.

“We need to just step back a little bit, and I think policymakers should seriously consider the broader privacy implications of this,” Leverenz told Civil Beat. “It’s not being even talked about or invoked right now, and I find it really disconcerting that the state is rushing head first into this massive data collection without adequate statutory safeguards to protect vulnerable communities.”

“In an era of uncontested and unconstrained mass electronic surveillance,” Leverenz said, “with the federal government that’s already trampling upon under-resourced communities with migrants or those who appear to be migrants, Hawaii should be very wary of providing surveillance mechanisms and data that can be commandeered or otherwise facilitate prospective federal enforcement actions.”

But Kila said state DOT is deploying cameras at intersections where the data shows there is speeding and accidents, and is not targeting poor neighborhoods.

“Data is not discriminatory upon income, right?” Kila said. “If the data shows that this intersection is subject to more dangerous accidents than anywhere across the state, it’s going to qualify as a place for the installation of a camera.”

As for the data concerns, Kila said the cameras are only recording violators, not all of the traffic that passes through the intersections.

He also said the public cannot access the data collected by the cameras, because only the DOT, law enforcement and the contractor that operates the cameras have that access.

The Senate Transportation, Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs and Education committees approved HB 2033 with amendments after a public hearing Tuesday afternoon. The measure now goes to the Senate Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees for further consideration.

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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.