Pensacola AI red-light camera fines driver 25 miles out of state

Jacob Rockwell got a $158 ticket for running a red light at 9th Avenue and Gregory Street in Pensacola this past March. He says he was 25 miles away in Seminole, Alabama, that someone else had been borrowing his car, and that he will not identify the driver.

In clips from a Pensacola City Council meeting that circulated widely this year, including as a YouTube Short, Rockwell used his minutes to go after the AI camera system directly. "How could I be in two places at one time, you ask? I ask myself that too," he told the council, per local reporting from WEAR-TV. "This big brother system is unamerican, it's China-esqe, and none of the voters asked for this."

The cameras in Pensacola are operated by Novoa Global, an Orlando-based company. The city's position, as explained by Officer Mike Wood, is that police verify the camera's tag-to-vehicle match and that an owner who was not driving can file an affidavit naming the real driver, after which the citation transfers.

Rockwell's objection is the one at the heart of every automated-enforcement fight: the camera identifies a license plate, not a person. The hearing upheld his citation anyway. His closing ask to the council was narrower than his rhetoric: "If you're going to have these systems in our communities, make sure you verify the driver."