Despite end of Suffolk's red-light camera tickets, outstanding tickets still valid

Suffolk’s red-light camera program has stopped, but people with unpaid tickets under the automated enforcement system may be on the hook for those fines, county officials said Monday.

Drivers with red-light camera infractions issued before the program ended on Sunday will need to have those adjudicated, officials said. The fine for a red-light camera ticket is $50.

James Teese, a spokesman for the county legislature, did not say Monday how many tickets are outstanding. In 2023, the program generated around $13 million for Suffolk County. Nassau County’s red-light program will continue.

The end of Suffolk's red-light program draws to a close a 14-year system that was often contentious, drawing support from proponents who said it increased safety and ire from critics who claimed it was a money grab.

At a Monday news conference held at a Holbrook intersection that had a red-light camera,  officials praised the conclusion of the program they say didn’t improve safety and whose cameras they said were unfairly concentrated in lower-middle-class communities.

"The program was flawed from the beginning," Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville) said. "It wasn’t about saving lives. It was about saving budgets."

Dan Panico, Town of Brookhaven supervisor, said the government "should be honest with the people as what it costs to run a government, not jack up administrative fees."

Once the program was implemented, accidents increased by about 9% and rear-end accidents increased by nearly 50%, Newsday has reported. Yet, the number of accidents with injuries decreased by about 11% since the red-light cameras were installed, according to other published data.

Piccirillo said ending the program that generated more than $289 million in revenue for Suffolk from 2013 to 2023 would not have a fiscal impact on this year’s budget. Suffolk County hired 100 officers in this budget, some of whom could be dealing with traffic, Piccirillo and Teese said.

But Piccirillo noted Suffolk might have to pay back a $30 administrative fee on tickets that the county stopped collecting in 2023. In November, an appellate division court deemed the cost to be unlawful. A lawyer told Newsday he estimated Suffolk took in $160 million in additional fees.

At least of some of the tickets, officials contend, were going to residents who live in lower-middle-class communities with a higher concentration of cameras. 

There were no cameras placed south of Montauk Highway and north of Route 25A, officials said. They were also not placed in any of the five eastern towns.

The Town of Brookhaven had 38 red-light camera intersections — the most in the county, according to a review of the red-light program. The Town of Islip was next with 24, while the Town of Babylon had 19 and the Town of Huntington had 15. Smithtown had four.

State Sen. Anthony Palumbo, a Republican whose district includes portions of the Town of Brookhaven and the five eastern towns, said the placement of red-light cameras "was not about public safety."

With Peter Gill

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Education: Howard University 

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith came to Newsday in 2023 after being a race and history reporter at USA TODAY, where she wrote enterprise and spot articles examining how the past shapes the present. Previously, she worked as the race and justice reporter at the USA TODAY Network of New York, covering issues such as criminal justice reform, housing, environmental justice, health care and politics. At The Journal News/lohud.com in Westchester County, she covered Yonkers, the state's third-largest city. She also worked at The Associated Press in Atlanta.

Honors and Awards: Criminal justice reporting fellowship with the National Press Foundation;  New York News Publishers Association award for distinguished investigative reporting;  Contributed reporting for Best of Gannett honor; Member of Table Stakes, a program funded by the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund and managed by the American Press Institute to transform local news.