Got a redlight camera ticket - pay or ignore?

[Leamas 29]

Has anyone gotten one of these tickets and just not paid it?

Got a notice in the mail stating I ran through an intersection on a red light and need to pay a $75 fine to the City of Humble. According to the pics, it happened at 1960 and US 59. If I don't pay it, there is an added $25 past-due fee. And that's about it. Regardless if I pay it or not, there is no ding on my driving record or credit report and no insurance premium hike. It is a civil violation and not a criminal one. I can't get arrested.

Currently, House Bill 1631 is awaiting signature by the governor. Once he signs, the law will prohibit cities from operating redlight cameras (except that cities can still operate existing cameras in place prior to May 7, 2019, until the contract with the camera operator expires). More importantly, the law would prohibit the DMV or the county from blocking my vehicle registration renewal coming up in August just because I have an unpaid redlight ticket. Doesn't seem like there is an enforcement mechanism for the ticket, other than the camera operator suing me for $100 in small claims court.

Edited May 30, 2019 by Leamas

[phdhorn 6224]

The only block is that if your county tax assessor wants to, they can withhold your registration.  If they don't give a shit, there's no real problem.   However I looked it up, 
(https://media.kxan.com/nxs-kxantv-media-us-east-1/document_dev/2019/04/05/ATT92437_1554506166373_80837443_ver1.0.pdf), 

and Humble is one of 23 cities in Texas that works with DMV to hold up registrations, apparently whether you live there or not.

So I'd pay it or you won't be able to register your cars.

[bernorange 8362]

Quote

If you fail to pay your ticket, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles or your local county assessor-collector can refuse to register the vehicle allegedly involved in the violation. This is known as a “scofflaw block.”

If you try to renew online directly through the DMV, your registration will be blocked. But if you go to the county assessor-collector office in person, you might be in luck. It’s up to each county to decide whether to enforce a scofflaw block. Some counties have decided that it’s just not worth the extra time and hassle to force drivers to pay their fines to cities.

According to the website TrashYourTicket.com, the following counties do not block vehicle registrations for outstanding red light camera tickets:

• Calhoun
• Chambers
• Galveston
• Harris
• Potter
• Tarrant

https://trafficschoolonline.com/blog/texas-red-light-camera-ticket

I've got a mountain of letters stacked up in a pile for a couple of red light violations that my son accrued in Magnolia, TX (Ren Fest).  I wasn't planning on paying them even before the car got recently totaled.

[Gene Parmesan 4008]

[Pogo 284]

phdhorn is correct in that their only recourse is the registration.  It's a civil infraction, which just means that the legislators that bowed to the lobbyists and legalized these cameras knew that the tickets couldn't be criminal without violating due process laws. 

Several years ago when Round Rock had them, I purposely rolled through a right turn on red (entering my neighborhood) and got one just to see what it said.  The "officer" that signed my violation under penalty of perjury was actually retired and not accredited anymore.  I contested the ticket.  That consisted of sitting in a room at RRPD for 15 minutes with another cop who didn't give 2 shits what I had to say.  I threw everything away when I got home.  Never got anything from a collection agency or had an issue with registration.  If they had sent it to collections, that's probably when I would have paid something just to get them off my back.

A couple years later, Round Rock suspended the program because they were paying Redflex too much money and hadn't been able to collect on 14,000 outstanding tickets.

[Quagmire 2147]

Don’t waste your money, it can’t go over 100 bucks. I live in a county that supposedly blocks registrations and I was able to renew mine online no problem