School speed cameras could be on their way to the city of Jamestown.

Legislation (A.7224) has been introduced in the state Assembly by Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown. Goodell drafted legislation different from the proposed language approved by the City Council last year, though Mayor Eddie Sundquist has been involved in the redrafting of the legislation. It will also request a home rule request before Goodell and state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, introduce the legislation.

Ironically, Goodell led the floor debate on A.6449, the legislation that implemented a school zone speed camera demonstration program in 2019. During that 2019 debate with Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo and now Assembly majority leader, Goodell raised several issues that factored into his suggested changes to the Jamestown legislation.

The city’s original legislation would have let drivers travel up to 30 miles an hour before they would have received a ticket from the camera system, something Goodell questioned on the Assembly floor in 2019. Accordingly, the language proposed by Goodell eliminates that clause as well as delineates that the cameras will only be in operation an hour before school begins, an hour after school ends as well as 30 minutes before and after student activities end.

The redrafted proposal also gives drivers more due process to fight the tickets, including the right for a hearing in front of a City Court judge that can include reviewing the camera’s certifications and interviewing the person who certified the camera was ready for use. Before the city installs a camera, it will have to consider criteria including speed data, crash history and roadway geometry, a requirement that wasn’t in the original proposal. The Buffalo program’s insistence on strict liability was a sticking point for Goodell back in 2019.

Goodell also included a three-year sunset to the program and a requirement that the city Police Department send a report to the state to show the program’s effectiveness. That point also came up in 2019 when Goodell noted another speed camera demonstration program never submitted the required reports despite repeated requests from state legislators.

“This is not a permanent authorization,” Goodell said. “It’s for three years and they’re required to make annual reports on how effective its been to reduce speeding in school zones. Unlike other similar laws this automatically expires if they don’t make a report on time. That was a bone of contention in New York City, which had a similar demonstration program and simply ignored the reporting requirements for several years. This is self-enforcing, if you will.”

While Jamestown is trying to move ahead with its speed camera program, two-thirds of the Buffalo Common Council wants to end the city’s speed camera contract with Sensys Gatso, the same company Jamestown plans to have run its speed camera program.

Buffalo’s council wants to replace cameras with radar speed signs and install speed bumps in school zones, change the school speed zone limit from 15 to 20 miles an hour and require the city to place “school” pavement markings and crosswalks by schools. According to a recent Buffalo News article, the speed camera program has been criticized for its poor roll out and execution while some have also complained that the program targets the city’s most impoverished residents by placing many of the cameras in high-poverty, minority neighborhoods.

A Buffalo News article in March included further issues with Sensys Gatso’s cameras, including a woman receiving a $50 fine in the mail for a ticket issued before the school cameras were supposed to be in operation while another Buffalo resident received his hearing notice for a school speeding ticket the week after the hearing date was held.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and Sensys Gatso officials say the system has worked. Half of the citations come from people living outside Buffalo. Buffalo budgeted roughly $2.3 million in revenue from its speed camera program.

“The legislation that I’m introducing only gives Jamestown the right, the option, to put up the camera system,” Goodell said. “It certainly doesn’t require them to. I have great respect for local elected officials to make the right decision for their individual municipality. It’s up to the council and the mayor to look at the experience in New York City and Buffalo and elsewhere to decide if this is something they want to do. In the meantime this legislation would give them that option.”