D.C. officials weighing lower traffic camera fines

D.C. Council members could lower fines for traffic cameras in the District after complaints from residents that city officials are using the program as a revenue generator to fill budget gaps.

Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh said the task force she co-chairs with Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells will discuss on Wednesday more “reasonable” levies then the $150 fine dished out for many first-time offenders. Automated traffic enforcement fines have increased by as much as 500 percent over the past four years, a rate that Cheh said was in many ways arbitrary.