Arizona photo radar camera ban flashes past November ballot

PHOENIX - It was a disappointing day for organizers of a campaign to ban the use of traffic enforcement cameras in Arizona.

The group was hoping to get enough signatures to put the controversial measure on the ballot, but fell short 34,000 signatures.

In two years, they collected 120,000.

"It is very close, we are going to go up to the Governor's office and deliver the petitions to her and ask her to put it on the ballot anyway," said Shawn Dow with Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar.

Photo radar opponents needed to submit 153,365 voter signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

Governor Jan Brewer had decided not to renew the contract for the state's two year old speed cameras, but backers still wanted to make it official by putting it to a vote.

"I couldn't believe it. They did a really good job. Frankly, I think that the information they were trying to get out was communicated to a large audience and I'm surprised,"  said Joanna Peters with Safer Arizona Roads Alliance. 

Peters is a proponent of photo radar saying they save lives. She says just their presence slows drivers down.

Her group was preparing for the battle to keep the cameras on the road and now hope Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar will work with them on a compromise.

"Ultimately, I know they just wanted to get rid of them. But now that it didn't work, it would be great for them to work with the community and law enforcement so that we could have the program be more successful," Peters said.

But Dow has other plans.

He said if the governor won't put it on the ballot, they will continue their fight to ban photo enforcement at the city level.

"We're gonna start in Tempe, Mesa, Phoenix and Paradise Valley," Dow said. "We got those petition packets and we'll only need a few hundred over the hundreds of thousands of signatures we needed for the state level."