BP BHEAD INT H [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to restricting the use of automated traffic enforcement systems; amending RCW 46.63.030 and 46.63.140; adding a new section to chapter 46.63 RCW; and creating new sections.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature recognizes that traffic safety cameras are an effective speed, stoplight, and railroad crossing enforcement tool. While these devices are effective at detecting traffic violations and reducing accidents, the legislature is concerned that these devices are being used without regulation. The purpose of this act is to regulate traffic safety cameras so they can enhance public safety and operate in a manner that protects individual privacy.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 46.63 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The use of traffic safety cameras is subject to the following regulations:

(a) The appropriate local legislative authority must first enact an ordinance allowing for their use to detect one or more of the following: Speeding in school and construction zones, stoplight violations, railroad crossing violations, or toll enforcement violations when those violations occur on projects initiated under chapter 47.46 RCW. However, use for toll enforcement violations does not require authorization through local ordinances. At a minimum, the local ordinance must contain the restrictions described in this section. Cities and counties using traffic safety cameras before the effective date of this act are subject to the restrictions described in this section, but are not required to enact an authorizing ordinance.

(b) Traffic safety cameras may take pictures of the vehicle and vehicle license plate only.

(c) The law enforcement agency shall plainly mark the locations where the automated traffic enforcement system is used by placing signs on street locations that clearly indicate to a driver that he or she is entering a zone where traffic laws are enforced by an automated traffic enforcement system.

(d) Cities and counties using traffic safety cameras must provide notice by mail to its citizens indicating the zones in which traffic safety cameras will be used.

(e) Notices of infractions must be mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle within fourteen days of the infraction occurring.

(f) A person receiving a notice of an infraction based on evidence detected by a traffic safety camera may respond to the notice by mail.

(g) The owner of a vehicle is responsible for a violation unless the owner can furnish evidence that the vehicle was, at the time of the violation, in the care, custody, or control of another person. The owner of the vehicle is not responsible for the violation if the owner of the vehicle, within fifteen days after notification of the violation, furnishes the officials or agents of the municipality that issued the citation:

(i) An affidavit made under oath, stating that the vehicle involved was, at the time, stolen or in the care, custody, or control of some person other than the owner; or

(ii) Testimony in open court under oath that the person was not the operator of the vehicle at the time of the alleged violation.

(2) Infractions detected through the use of traffic safety cameras are not part of the registered owner's driving record under RCW 46.52.101 and 46.52.120.

(3) If a notice of traffic infraction is sent to the registered owner under RCW 46.63.030(2) and the registered owner is a rental car business, the infraction will be dismissed against the business if it mails to the issuing agency, within fourteen days of receiving the notice, the name and known mailing address of the individual driving or renting the vehicle when the infraction occurred. If the business is unable to determine who was driving or renting the vehicle at the time the infraction occurred, the business must sign an affidavit making this declaration. The affidavit must be mailed to the issuing agency within fourteen days of receiving the notice of traffic infraction. Timely mailing of this affidavit to the issuing agency relieves a rental car business of any liability under this chapter for the notice of infraction. An affidavit form suitable for this purpose must be included with each infraction issued, along with instructions for its completion and use.

(4) The traffic safety commission may adopt rules regarding:

(a) Mechanical and operational standards for traffic safety camera equipment;

(b) The placement of signs to notify drivers that they are entering a jurisdiction or area that uses traffic safety cameras;

(5)(a) The traffic safety commission may oversee no more than five pilot projects regarding the use of traffic safety cameras for speeding outside of school zones. The pilot projects must last from a minimum of twelve months to a maximum of nineteen months.

(b) Cities or counties that want to use traffic safety cameras for speeding violations outside a school zone must issue a request to the traffic safety commission to participate in a pilot project.

(6) Jurisdictions using traffic safety cameras must comply with any standards adopted under subsection (4) of this section.

Sec. 3. RCW 46.63.030 and 1995 c 219 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) A law enforcement officer has the authority to issue a notice of traffic infraction:

(a) When the infraction is committed in the officer's presence;

(b) When the officer is acting upon the request of a law enforcement officer in whose presence the traffic infraction was committed; ((or))

(c) If an officer investigating at the scene of a motor vehicle accident has reasonable cause to believe that the driver of a motor vehicle involved in the accident has committed a traffic infraction; or

(d) When the infraction is mailed to the registered owner or the person renting a vehicle as authorized under subsection (2) of this section.

(2) When a traffic safety camera is used in compliance with section 2 of this act, a law enforcement officer, whether present or not during the commission of the infraction, or other issuing agency may issue a notice of traffic infraction by mail to the registered owner of the vehicle, or to the person renting the vehicle. The registered owner of the vehicle or the person renting the vehicle is responsible for the infraction.

((~~A court~~)) (3) An issuing agency may issue a notice of traffic infraction upon receipt of a written statement of the officer that there is reasonable cause to believe that an infraction was committed.

((~~(3)~~)) (4) If any motor vehicle without a driver is found parked, standing, or stopped in violation of this title or an equivalent administrative regulation or local law, ordinance, regulation, or resolution, the officer finding the vehicle shall take its registration number and may take any other information displayed on the vehicle which may identify its user, and shall conspicuously affix to the vehicle a notice of traffic infraction.

((~~(4)~~)) (5) In the case of failure to redeem an abandoned vehicle under RCW 46.55.120, upon receiving a complaint by a registered tow truck operator that has incurred costs in removing, storing, and disposing of an abandoned vehicle, an officer of the law enforcement agency responsible for directing the removal of the vehicle shall send a notice of infraction by certified mail to the last known address of the registered owner of the vehicle. The officer shall append to the notice of infraction, on a form prescribed by the department of licensing, a notice indicating the amount of costs incurred as a result of removing, storing, and disposing of the abandoned vehicle, less any amount realized at auction, and a statement that monetary penalties for the infraction will not be considered as having been paid until the monetary penalty payable under this chapter has been paid and the court is satisfied that the person has made restitution in the amount of the deficiency remaining after disposal of the vehicle.

Sec. 4. RCW 46.63.140 and 1980 c 128 s 11 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) In any traffic infraction case involving a violation of this title or equivalent administrative regulation or local law, ordinance, regulation, or resolution relating to the stopping, standing, or parking of a vehicle, proof that the particular vehicle described in the notice of traffic infraction was stopping, standing, or parking in violation of any such provision of this title or an equivalent administrative regulation or local law, ordinance, regulation, or resolution, together with proof that the person named in the notice of traffic infraction was at the time of the violation the registered owner of the vehicle, ((~~shall~~)) constitutes in evidence a prima facie presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle was the person who parked or placed the vehicle at the point where, and for the time during which, the violation occurred.

(2) The foregoing stated presumption ((~~shall apply~~)) applies only when the procedure prescribed in RCW 46.63.030((~~(3)~~)) (4) has been followed.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. By January 1, 2001, and for four years thereafter, the Washington traffic safety commission shall provide the chairs of the senate and house transportation committees a report regarding the use, outcomes, and other relevant issues of traffic safety cameras in this state.