DES MOINES — Seven car owners who claim Des Moines violated their constitutional rights when the city used a speed detection camera on Interstate 235 to issue traffic tickets plan to appeal a judge’s dismissal of their lawsuit, their attorneys said Monday.
“Our clients respectfully yet strongly disagree with the court’s ruling and I anticipate that an appeal will be filed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Jim Larew, the Des Moines lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
A federal judge in Des Moines said in an order filed Friday that previous rulings by the Iowa Supreme Court and another federal judge in Cedar Rapids established the legality of automated traffic enforcement cameras. He concluded that claims made in the lawsuit — that the cameras violate constitutional due process and equal protection rights and the right to freely travel through Des Moines — are without legal merit.
The cameras take pictures of speeding cars, and the owners are mailed a citation with a civil fine for speeding attached to the photos.
The judge said the radar speed cameras do not deprive drivers of due process or any fundamental liberty.
“Plaintiffs simply had no right to violate Iowa laws governing highway speed nor to disrespect the city’s reasonable method of detecting and penalizing speed violations with modest fines,” he wrote.
Des Moines City Attorney Jeff Lester said the city has ample authority to proceed with automated traffic enforcement.
“We are glad the Iowa Supreme Court and the federal district court agree with the city’s position on this vital public safety issue,” he said in a statement.
In February, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld Sioux City’s traffic camera ordinance. The justices concluded cities have a public interest in holding responsible the owner of a car issued speeding tickets by cameras. The court also rejected the argument that automated systems are an unreasonable exercise of police power.
State and federal courts in Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Tennessee and Ohio also have upheld automated traffic camera ordinances.
In the Cedar Rapids case, a federal judge found the city’s 2011 ordinance constitutional and dismissed the lawsuit brought by several Iowa and out-of-state drivers ticketed using the camera system.
Several Iowa cities continue legal challenges after the state Department of Transportation ruled in March that 10 traffic cameras operating in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Muscatine and Sioux City needed to be shut off because roads were not made safer by their use.
After appeals, Davenport and Council Bluffs each shut of one camera that the department had challenged.
Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Muscatine have sued the department in a combined case Polk County District Court. Sioux City, which has its own lawsuit, has agreed to put its case on hold pending the outcome of the other three cities’ case.
The cities with active cameras continue to issue tickets as the lawsuits move through the courts.