Utah Senate committee signs off on “photo cop” bill for school and construction zones 

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• A bill that earned committee approval on Thursday would allow the Utah Department of Transportation to test out automated traffic enforcement on Utah roads.

CAPITOL HILL—Utah drivers might want to slow down in school and construction zones if a pilot program to study so-called “photo cop” technology that earned committee approval on Thursday becomes law.

Members of the Senate Transportation Committee voted 3-2 in favor of SB105, which would permit the Utah Department of Transportation to test out automated traffic enforcement in a limited number of locations. Photo-cop systems are currently banned in the state, and Thursday’s vote came down to a tie-breaking “yes” by committee chairman Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, who told the bill’s sponsor he was willing to let the legislation move forward despite his personal objections to the technology, with the expectation of further amendments to limit the program’s scope.

“I just don’t like this,” Harper said. “I probably will be a ‘no’ vote on the [Senate] floor, but I want to see what you come out with.”

Thursday’s vote was the second time the transportation committee considered SB105 after it failed to move forward during a Valentine’s Day hearing. Its original form would have broadly permitted the use of traffic enforcement cameras in school and construction zones, but lawmakers objected to the potential for surveillance creep and the limitations of facial recognition software. Proponents argued that while those concerns have merit, they are more hypothetical than and pale in comparison to the dozens of lives lost on Utah roads every year, regularly including school-age children and highway contractors.

“We’re having people beg us to save students and workers in construction zones,” Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, told her committee colleagues. “Please consider a ‘yes’ vote.”

The specifics of the legislation are not yet available, as its sponsor, Layton Republican Sen. Jerry Stevenson, asked committee members to instead take a "leap of faith" and advance an older version of the bill while he continues to work on a substitute version ahead of floor debate. But he emphasized that the law would allow only a handful of test sites and a one-year timeline to allow for more informed debate in 2024.

"Let’s get some data, come back and then bring the bill forward next year if the data proves out," Stevenson said, "rather than jump into this wholeheartedly at this time."

Carlos Braceras, executive director of UDOT, testified in support of the bill. He suggested that drivers who run lights or speed through a camera-equipped zone would be mailed a "speed discouragement" warning, and would only receive a citation for a second offense within a calendar year.

"It is a problem," Braceras said. "People are dying and we need to slow people down."

The bill was also supported by David Spatafore, a spokesman for the state's Chiefs of Police Association. He said that virtually every law enforcement agency in Utah is understaffed, making it difficult to maintain a deterrent presence on the street while also responding to active incident.

Utah's roadways are typically built in ways that encourage high speeds in excess of posted limits, in ways a driver may or may not be cognizant of. And the speed disparities are exacerbated in school and construction zones, where drivers are expected to alter their behavior and travel at far slower speed than what is naturally comfortable for the road's design.

Spatafore suggested that the mere act of a hanging a sign warning that automated speed enforcement may be in place—whether it actually is or not—would likely help to calm traffic and save lives.

"Our goal is to reduce speed in school zones," Spatafore said. "We have children hit all the time. We have schools that are on state roads. We have schools that are on roads that have no sidewalks. This is something that’s critically important to us ."