Pembroke Pines officials voted against slamming the brakes on a contract fining red-light runners Wednesday after a camera company agreed to protect the city in future lawsuits.

City commissioners unanimously green lighted a proposal to continue erecting red light traffic cameras at major Pines intersections after equipment operator American Traffic Solutions invested $100,000 into an escrow account the city could use for legal fees in court.

Worried that ticketed drivers might file suit against the city and win in court, some uneasy commissioners wanted a legal force field that indemnified them during trial.

Commissioner Carl Shechter had added an item to Wednesday’s agenda to terminate the Scottsdale, Ariz. -based ATS’s contract after researching two similar pending red light camera lawsuits in Aventura and Temple Terrace near Tampa Bay.

“There’s a question if enforcing the cameras will be legal,” Shechter said. “There could be an order made for all the traffic citations to be refunded, so I wanted to terminate this contract until the Florida Legislature determines that red light cameras in our city are completely legal.”

City Attorney Samuel Goren said Wednesday that the pending lawsuits alarmed commissioners enough to pursue legal protection, and that the “city wants to get a lawsuit precedence.”

“There was discussion because we were venturing into uncharted waters here,” said Goren.

Last April, Tallahassee shot down a bill that legalized surveillance cameras on state-owned roads. Since March, Pembroke Pines has sidestepped that ruling by installing the equipment on local roads and by charging residents a code violation instead of a traffic violation, said Shechter.

Currently, one camera on the corner of Pines Boulevard and 129th Avenue is active; ATS enforced a six-month warning period lasting through March and issued warning notices to drivers.

The other five intersections will be:

Northbound Dykes Road and Pines Boulevard
Eastbound Sheridan Street and Northwest 72nd Avenue
Eastbound Taft Street and North Hiatus Road
Northbound North Hiatus Road and Taft Street
Northbound Southwest 136th Avenue and Pines Boulevard.

For more on this, read the Sept. 22 edition of the Pembroke Pines Gazette.