Citing resident complaints of wrongful ticketing, the Miami Beach Commission this week voted to immediately suspend the use of red-light cameras in enforcing right-turn violations.
The panel voted 5-2 for the change, which came at the recommendation of Mayor Steven Meiner and Commissioner Alex Fernandez.
Tanya Katzoff Bhatt and Monica Matteo Salinas opposed the move.
Florida law requires motorists to come to a full stop before turning right at a red light. Some intersections — including the Miami Beach intersection of 17th Street and Alton Road, where red-light camera enforcement will continue — prohibit right turns on red lights at all times.
But at nine other intersections in the city, enforcement will now fall solely to police.
In a statement Friday, two days after the vote, Meiner said public safety “will always be” the city’s priority, and that won’t change in absence of the cameras’ use.
“The Commission acted responsibly by suspending the camera enforcement for certain right turns while maintaining safeguards against drivers who disregard red lights altogether,” he said. “Our policeofficers will continue to enforce the law when they observe illegal right turns.”
Fernandez expressed frustration with seeing residents receive citations even when images the cameras took showed their vehicles braking at a red light before turn.
He said that he’s asked City Attorney Ricardo Dopico’s Office to further explore Miami Beach’s legal options regarding its long-term contract with red-light camera vendor Conduent since 2010.
“As courts continue to examine the constitutionality of Florida’s red-light camera law, I believe the use of this technology should be phased out,” he told Florida Politics by text.
“Beyond raising due process concerns when citations are issued to registered owners who may not have been driving the vehicle, these cameras encourage drivers to abruptly brake, increasing the risks of rear-end collisions.”
The legality of red-light cameras has an issue of repeated debate in recent years, with lawmakers from Miami-Dade County — Sen. Ileana Garcia and Rep. David Borrero, both Republicans — sponsoring measures to place a question on the 2024 ballot to ban their use in the Florida Constitution. Neither bill got a hearing.
Related proposals have fared similarly, such as those sponsored by CFO Blaise Ingoglia; Sens. Bryan Ávila, Erin Grall and Travis Hutson; Rep. Daryl Campbell; former Sens. Jeff Brandes and Tom Evers; and former Reps. Reps. Frank Artiles, Daphne Campbell and Anthony Rodriguez.
The closest that state lawmakers got was in the 2017 Legislative Session, when a measure then-Reps. Ávila and Ingoglia co-sponsored passed in the House by a 91-22 vote before stalling out in the Senate.
This past Session, legislation by St. Petersburg Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie and Republican Rep. Fiona McFarland — who chaired the 2024 bills’ first Committee stops and declined to schedule either for a hearing — unsuccessfully sponsored companion bills that included red-light camera considerations.
As of June 2025, the most recent date for which state data on the subject is available, there were 496 red-light cameras active in Florida, up from 493 in June 2024. They resulted in 923,133 notices of violation and 55,948 in-person citations, down from more than 1.01 million notices and 52,391 citations the year prior.
The uniform traffic citation tied to a right-on-red turn in Miami-Dade County is $277.