BILL REQ. #:  S-1821.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/21/03.   

     AN ACT Relating to regulating the use of automated traffic safety cameras; amending RCW 3.50.100, 46.63.030, and 46.63.140; adding new sections to chapter 46.04 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 46.63 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 46.04 RCW to read as follows:
     "Automated traffic safety camera" means a device that uses a vehicle sensor installed to work in conjunction with an intersection traffic control system, a railroad grade crossing control system, or a speed measuring device and a camera synchronized to automatically record one or more sequenced photographs, microphotographs, or electronic images of the rear or front, or both, of a motor vehicle at the time the vehicle fails to stop when facing a steady red traffic control signal or an activated railroad grade crossing control signal, or exceeds a predetermined speed as detected by a speed measuring device.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 46.04 RCW to read as follows:
     "Automated traffic infraction notice" means a notice of a traffic infraction generated by the use of an authorized automated traffic safety camera issued to the registered owner of a vehicle photographed while exceeding a predetermined speed limit or failing to stop at a red traffic control signal or violating an activated railroad grade crossing control. An automated traffic infraction notice issued by the use of an automated traffic safety camera system must include a copy or facsimile of the photograph showing both the vehicle license plate of the offending vehicle and the traffic control device, the activated railroad grade crossing control, or the speed detected by a speed measuring device. An automated traffic infraction notice will be administered under RCW 46.63.140.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 46.63 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The use of automated 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, stoplight, or railroad crossing violations. At a minimum, the local ordinance must contain the restrictions described in this section and provisions for public notice and signage. 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) Use of automated traffic safety cameras is restricted to construction zones, school zones, two-arterial intersections, railroad crossings, and other areas designated by the Washington state patrol or county or city police as areas of high collision frequency.
     (c) Automated traffic safety cameras may take pictures of the vehicle and vehicle license plate and only while an infraction is occurring.
     (d) The ordinance enacted by the local legislative authority may provide that automated traffic safety cameras may take pictures of the vehicle, vehicle license plate, and the face of the driver while an infraction is occurring.
     (e) The law enforcement agency having jurisdiction shall plainly mark the locations where an automated traffic safety camera 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 safety camera. Signs must be displayed one hundred yards in advance of placement of the locations where an automated traffic safety camera is used and must state the following in letters at least six inches high: "SPEED AND TRAFFIC LIGHT VIOLATIONS RECORDED BY CAMERA."
     (f) A notice of an infraction must be mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle within fourteen days of the infraction occurring. The jurisdiction must not issue an additional infraction to the registered owner of the vehicle during the fourteen-day notification period.
     (g) A person receiving an automated traffic infraction notice based on evidence detected by an automated traffic safety camera may respond to the notice by mail.
     (2) Infractions detected through the use of automated traffic safety cameras will be processed as are stopping, standing, or parking violations under RCW 46.61.560, but are not part of the registered owner's driving record under RCW 46.52.101 and 46.52.120.
     (3) If an automated traffic infraction notice 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, a declaration under penalty of perjury of 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 a declaration under penalty of perjury to this effect. The declaration must be mailed to the issuing agency within fourteen days of receiving the notice of traffic infraction. Timely mailing of this declaration to the issuing agency relieves a rental car business of any liability under this chapter for the notice of infraction. A declaration form suitable for this purpose must be included with each automated traffic infraction notice issued, along with instructions for its completion and use.
     (4) If a county or city has established an authorized automated traffic safety camera program under this section, the compensation paid to the manufacturer or vendor of the equipment used must be based only upon the value of the equipment and services provided or rendered in support of the system, and may not be based upon a portion of the fine or civil penalty imposed or the revenue generated by the equipment.

Sec. 4   RCW 3.50.100 and 1995 c 291 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Costs in civil and criminal actions may be imposed as provided in district court. All fees, costs, fines, forfeitures and other money imposed by any municipal court for the violation of any municipal or town ordinances shall be collected by the court clerk and, together with any other noninterest revenues received by the clerk, shall be deposited with the city or town treasurer as a part of the general fund of the city or town, or deposited in such other fund of the city or town, or deposited in such other funds as may be designated by the laws of the state of Washington.
     (2) The city treasurer shall remit monthly thirty-two percent of the noninterest money received under this section, other than for parking infractions or for infractions detected by an automated traffic safety camera, and certain costs to the state treasurer. "Certain costs" as used in this subsection, means those costs awarded to prevailing parties in civil actions under RCW 4.84.010 or 36.18.040, or those costs awarded against convicted defendants in criminal actions under RCW 10.01.160, 10.46.190, or 36.18.040, or other similar statutes if such costs are specifically designated as costs by the court and are awarded for the specific reimbursement of costs incurred by the state, county, city, or town in the prosecution of the case, including the fees of defense counsel. Money remitted under this subsection to the state treasurer shall be deposited as provided in RCW 43.08.250.
     (3) The balance of the noninterest money received under this section shall be retained by the city and deposited as provided by law.
     (4) Penalties, fines, bail forfeitures, fees, and costs may accrue interest at the rate of twelve percent per annum, upon assignment to a collection agency. Interest may accrue only while the case is in collection status.
     (5) Interest retained by the court on penalties, fines, bail forfeitures, fees, and costs shall be split twenty-five percent to the state treasurer for deposit in the public safety and education account as provided in RCW 43.08.250, twenty-five percent to the state treasurer for deposit in the judicial information system account as provided in RCW 2.68.020, twenty-five percent to the city general fund, and twenty-five percent to the city general fund to fund local courts.

Sec. 5   RCW 46.63.030 and 2002 c 279 s 14 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A law enforcement officer has the authority to issue a notice of traffic infraction or an automated traffic infraction notice:
     (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 notice is mailed to the registered owner or the person renting a vehicle as authorized under subsection (2) of this section.
     (2) When an automated traffic safety camera is used in compliance with section 3 of this act, a law enforcement officer, whether present or not during the commission of the infraction, or other issuing agency may issue an automated traffic infraction notice 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.
     (3) A court 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 person responsible under RCW 46.55.105. The notice must be entitled "Littering -- Abandoned Vehicle" and give notice of the monetary penalty. 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. 6   RCW 46.63.140 and 1980 c 128 s 11 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) In any traffic infraction case or automated 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 or violations detected by automated traffic safety cameras, proof that the particular vehicle described in the notice of traffic infraction or automated traffic infraction notice was stopping, standing, or parking or did commit the violation detected by an automated traffic safety camera 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 or automated traffic infraction notice 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 or who operated the vehicle photographed by an automated traffic safety camera.
     (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. 7   The legislature respectfully requests the Washington state supreme court to amend the Infraction Rules for Courts of Limited Jurisdiction to conform to this act. Furthermore, the legislature respectfully asks the court to create an automated traffic infraction notice that is consistent with this act.