Did a Louisiana Senator Advise Residents to Ignore Tickets From Speed Cameras?

Get ready to find more tickets in your mailbox, whether you're breaking the law or not. Shreveport and Caddo Parish have been playing the "Speed Camera" game for the last few years, especially in school zones. But over that time, it hasn't just been people breaking the law that got tickets, innocent citizens have been cited too. That led to the city of Shreveport placing a temporary moratorium on these tickets.

But at the center of this issue is the fact that neither Shreveport Police officers or Caddo Parish deputies aren issuing these citations It's a private company. That's right, a private company has been given the ability to act as law enforcement officers in Shreveport.

These speed cams haven't gone without official opposition. Leaders at the state level had actually attempted to ban the technology from leaching off the communities in the state. That was defeated in 2024, but its likely that there will be more challenges coming. Because this isn't just a Shreveport problem.

State Senator Stewart Cathey, Jr took to social media this week to post details on the town of Mangham, Louisiana. Cathey points out that the community has seen more speeding tickets issued in a 9-month period than the town has collected in all other forms of tax revenue...COMBINED.

With that, Cathey, Jr posted that residents need to "stop paying the traffic camera tickets".

A Louisiana State Senator has advised residents of his state to ignore these tickets. Ones that are, again, not issued by police in the state, but by a private company. Not that the private company is taking all of the funds, much like in Mangham, Shreveport has created a budget boost from this concept.

In fact, when the state-level challenge came to the speed cams, it wasn't "safety" that was the main concern, it was revenue. The city of Shreveport budgeted $2.5 million from these speed cameras, according to The Advocate. So just sit back and think about that...they're already counting that money. That means they NEED there to be $2.5 million worth of speeding to happen.

So if Shreveport residents DON'T get close to that number by October, how many phantom tickets are going to start getting sent out again? Because if a private company, who's entire goal is to maximize profits, is falling short of goal...and a city is falling short of their budget, do you think they're just going to sit back and not doing something about it?