PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. (WUSA)-- There is a new debate over red light cameras and their function. This time it's one in particular that is raising eyebrows. It's located at the intersection of Route 450 and Princess Garden Parkway in Prince George's County.
Nolan Church said he received a ticket there for running a red light, but according to him he did not wrong.
He said, "I absolutely stopped. I was stopped."
The debate lies in the area where he stopped. The red light camera snapped a picture of Church's car at a full halt inbetween a crosswalk and a white line. According to him, he didn't know the white line was the stopping point. He thought the place to stop was in front of the crosswalk. According to Prince George's County Police, he is wrong. They identify the stopping point as the white line that sits about 3 car lengths before the crosswalk. It's a called the "stop bar."
AAA spokesman John Townsend is against the practice of cameras citing people for not stopping at the "stop bar." According to him, it's illegal to do that.
He said, "What the municipality did was to expand the crosswalk. To entrap and ensnare people."
Prince George's County Police Major Robert Liberati is defending the citation that Church received and the method used in doing it. He said that intersection is designed in a specific way not to trick motorists but to facilitate an open route for emergency vehicles.
Liberati said, "The state has built this road with a milled down median to allow emergency vehicles to come off Princess Garden or 450 through this area and this opening in the median strip."
According to him the white line or "stop bar" is to keep motorists from blocking the area along the median strip where the dip used by emergency vehicles is at.
Townsend and Church aren't buying that explanation.
Townsend said, "It's an abuse of power, an abuse of authority, and an abuse of the law."
Church who plans on challenging his ticket said, "The fine is only $75. I could just pay it, but I think it's wrong and I want to fight it just on general principle."