Senator Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches # 1214

  What do we do when we are divided against ourselves? I came face to face with this dilemma over a proposed bill during the 2010 Legislative Session.

  The mayor of Selma said, “We need your help with a local bill. It’s to put cameras on traffic lights. It will stop so many persons from running red lights.” Mayor Evans said it with a matter of fact tone but it hit me in the guts.

  This idea of cameras on traffic signals has come before the Alabama Senate on several occasions as a statewide bill. I was always against it. It never passed the senate. Then cities began passing local bills that authorized cameras on traffic signals. I had voted for some of these bills out of “local courtesy.” Local courtesy is supporting something in another legislator’s district whether we agree with the idea or not. In my heart, I was still opposed to cameras on traffic signals.