Resident cites legal concerns over traffic cameras, provides documents to council

Edgewood — Resident Mike Stanzel used audience comment on Feb. 11 to ask the council to review the city's traffic-camera enforcement, citing a Minnesota Supreme Court opinion and data he said show no Edgewood school-zone incidents in recent years.

Stanzel told council members he had provided the council copies of an infraction, a questionnaire and a newspaper article with a quote from a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that, in his view, identified problems with traffic-camera enforcement—in particular the practice of assigning responsibility to a vehicle owner without evidence of who was driving. "They unanimously found multiple problems with traffic camera enforcement," Stanzel said, and he urged the council to ask the city attorney whether presumption of innocence protections apply to the city's program.

He said the city has been issuing $170 tickets for 25 miles per hour violations without evidence of the driver and that he believes Washington State courts and law should be consulted. Stanzel told the council he had also provided Washington State Patrol accident data showing no incidents in Edgewood school zones between 2013 and 2019 and none between 2019 and 2024. He said he had seen contracts and practices in other cities that raised civil-rights concerns and suggested some systems operate primarily as revenue generators.

Stanzel requested the council review the materials he submitted and consider whether the city's program complies with legal protections. The council did not take action during the meeting; the matter remained a public comment item for council consideration.