JEFFERSON CITY • Jason Cadell of O'Fallon knows first hand the trouble when police officers leave patrolling up to machines.
He once received a ticket for running a red light -- issued from a red light camera -- for a vehicle and license plate he didn't own.
It's not something he wants to experience again -- and he doesn't want it to happen to anyone else either.
"To err is human but to really foul things up takes a computer," Cadell said Tuesday at a House committee meeting.
Cadell was one of several Missourians testifying Tuesday at a House Civil and Criminal Proceedings hearing. The topic: the ever controversial red light cameras.
Red light cameras are all about cities "collecting revenue," Cadell said. "We need to put an end to this and get it back to people's rights."
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The committee heard Tuesday a number of bills dealing with the elimination of red light cameras. One, filed by Rep. Paul Curtman, R-Union, would allow Missourians to decide if red light cameras should be eliminated across the state. But before the measure goes on the August 2016 ballot, the General Assembly must pass it and Gov. Jay Nixon must sign off on it.
Other bills heard Tuesday ranged in severity, from an outright ban on automated  traffic systems to requiring signage indicating the presence of said camera.
Rep. Gina Mitten, D-Richmond Heights, wasn't sure an outright ban on these cameras was the right thing to do, especially because some municipalities were using them correctly in dangerous intersections.
But Sarah Rossi, ³Ù³ó±ðÌýACLU of Missouri's director of advocacy and policy, said the cameras are "mostly used for revenue generation."
"Monitoring of private citizens is a violation of people's due process rights and privacy rights," Rossi said.
The bills come as the Missouri Supreme Court mulls the future of traffic camera enforcement laws in three Missouri cities.Â
ºüÀêÊÓƵ, along with the suburban municipalities of Moline Acres and St. Peters, argued the legality of their laws in the widely watched legal showdown pitting municipalities, which insist the cameras are an important safety tool, against motorists, who see the cameras as Orwellian devices that are more about generating revenue than making roads safer.
The committee did not vote on any of the bills.