On Saturday, after over ten years of red light cameras use by local governments across the state to impose fines, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law legislation that bans the use of red light cameras in Texas and ensures people who have been ticketed based upon photos taken by such cameras can register their vehicles despite their having not paid the tickets.

For a discussion of how state and local governments, working together with companies that provide and operate the cameras, have used red light cameras to surveille and fleece people across America, read John W. Whitehead’s October of 2013 Rutherford Institute editorial Red Light Cameras, Drones and Surveillance: Fleecing the Taxpayer in the Age of Petty Tyrannies. In his editorial, Whitehead also describes how danger on the roads can be increased by yellow light times being reduced in conjunction with the operation of red light cameras in an effort to generate more fines at the cost of increasing the number of traffic accidents.

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.