Riled up by red-light cameras? This South Florida city is scaling back enforcement

Miami Beach admin June 29, 2026 0 Comments

Riled up by red-light cameras? This South Florida city is scaling back enforcement

Drivers making a right turn on red in Miami Beach can breathe a little easier.

The Miami Beach City Commission last week voted 5-2 to immediately suspend automated red-light camera enforcement for right turns on red after months of complaints from residents who said they were unfairly cited. The change does not apply at the intersection of 17th Street and Alton Road, where right turns on red are prohibited, and cameras will continue issuing citations to drivers who run red lights while traveling straight through intersections.

The measure was sponsored by Commissioner Alex Fernandez and Mayor Steven Meiner, who said they have received an overwhelming number of complaints from residents who believed they had come to a complete stop before turning.

“It has been frustrating to see Miami Beach residents receive red-light camera citations even when the images showed their vehicles braking at a red light before turning,” Fernandez said. “At a time when we’re working to improve affordability and quality of life, these citations have cost residents valuable time appealing their cases and, in many instances, more than $180 in penalties.”

During the discussion, Police Chief Wayne Jones defended the city’s enforcement process, saying every citation generated by a camera is reviewed by a police officer before it is mailed to the vehicle’s registered owner.

Jones said the issue isn’t faulty cameras but drivers making what is commonly known as a “California roll” — slowing down instead of coming to a complete stop before turning right on red.

“People are not stopping,” Jones said. “What they’re doing in most cases making right turns is what is called a California roll. They slow considerably and then they turn.”

The cameras are programmed to activate when a vehicle enters an intersection above a preset speed threshold while the light is red. Jones said that threshold is currently about 7 mph and could be raised, but Fernandez said he was unconvinced that changing the settings would solve the problem.

“I don’t generally trust the technology,” Fernandez said, adding that he suspected the system may not always accurately distinguish between drivers making legal right turns and those illegally running red lights.

Commissioner David Suarez supported the suspension, pointing to a recent Broward County court ruling that found Florida’s red-light camera law unconstitutional because citations are issued to a vehicle’s registered owner rather than the person actually driving.

“To me, that’s a big fault in the system,” Suarez said. “You don’t know who’s driving the car.”

Under current law, vehicle owners who were not driving must contest the citation in court and identify the person behind the wheel if they want the ticket dismissed.

But not all commissioners agreed that suspending the cameras was the right solution.

Commissioner Monica Matteo-Salinas opposed the measure, arguing that the cameras help protect pedestrians and cyclists in one of the city’s busiest areas. Instead of eliminating enforcement, she proposed raising the speed threshold that triggers a citation and testing the change for six months.

“I think people just need to slow down and stop and chill out and just stop,” Matteo-Salina said. “We have increasingly bad drivers.”

The new policy does not erase tickets that have already been issued. Drivers who previously received a citation for failing to come to a complete stop before turning right on red must still either pay the fine or contest the ticket in court.