Will County Gazette

Illinois state Rep. Margo McDermed (R-Mokena) recently joined the growing number of lawmakers calling for the ban of red-light cameras in Illinois in the face of an ongoing federal corruption probe involving one of the state’s largest operators of such devices.

“There’s no evidence that these red-light cameras have been an effective safety tool or provided any real benefit to our citizens, only that they’ve been a boon to local coffers,” McDermed said in a press release. “According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Chicago and other local governments across Illinois have banked over $1 billion combined between 2008 and 2018 from red-light cameras, and the presence of these cameras outside Chicago has increased threefold during that time. When it comes to these systems, they’re proliferating despite the bad clearly outweighing the good.”

McDermed said she stands in support of House Bill 3909, which would ban the installation of any new red-light cameras while outlawing the continuing use of all that exist. As part of the current probe, federal agents recently executed raids on the home and offices of longtime state Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago), who up until recently also served as chairman of the powerful Senate Transportation Committee.

Illinois state Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago)

In 2017, the Chicago Tribune reported that Sandoval interceded on behalf of red-light camera company SafeSpeed LLC to get approval for an installation in Oakbrook Terrace that had previously been denied by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The last several weeks have been a busy time for McDermed, who also hosted her final self-defense workshop of 2019 for women and girls in the 37th District. In conjunction with One Light Self Defense, McDermed hosted the workshop at St. John’s United Church of Christ in Mokena, where avoidance tactics, offensive techniques and defensive escapes were all part of the forum.

“I highly recommend women and girls come to this workshop, even if they have already done so, as it is full of useful information and techniques,” McDermed said in a press release.

The Oct. 8 class was the fourth of a series that McDermed hosted this year with One Light, which lays claim to having trained students of all ages across the state. All donations raised from the event were contributed to victims of domestic violence, human trafficking or sexual assault.