House committee advances bill to ban DC traffic cams

D.C. has 536 automated traffic cameras keeping watch over the roads, and some lawmakers on Capitol Hill want all of them turned off for good.

The House Oversight Committee voted 21-19 along party lines Wednesday to ban automated traffic cameras in D.C. The bill now goes to the full House.

“The residents and commuters of Washington are both sick and tired of being fleeced for hundreds of dollars of petty automated traffic fines — all in the name of alleged safety,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.

D.C.’s traffic cameras took in more than $267 million in fines last fiscal year, according to D.C.’s chief financial officer.

Perry introduced a bill that would end photo enforcement with traffic cameras and once again allow right turns on red lights in downtown D.C.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department, road deaths increased from 35 in 2022 to 52 in 2023 and 2024, followed by a drop to 25 last year.

Perry says that inconsistency is telling.

“It’s not getting safer out there, folks,” he said. “Anyone with common sense can see there is 0 correlation between these fatality figures and the hundreds of cameras installed over more than 25 years.”

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D- D.C., pushed back against the bill, essentially saying Congress should not be sticking it’s nose in D.C.’s business.

“Republicans have been trying to repeal that law since 2014,” she said.

She says the bill is a waste of time.

Meanwhile, members of the group DC Vote, which advocates for D.C. statehood, say they plan to head to Perry’s hometown in Pennsylvania this weekend to make a point.

“We thought we would go to Harrisburg and ask just people on the street what are their 10 most important issues — what are the things that keep them up at night — and we want to see where D.C. traffic laws fall on that range,” said Daniel Solomon of DC Vote. “My guess is it’s not going to make the Top 10 or even the Top 20, but, you know, let’s find out.”

For now, though, the traffic cameras are watching.