ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones is pushing for red light cameras after several deadly accidents throughout the area.

“Everyone deserves to feel safe navigating our city by foot, by bike, by transit, or by car,” she said.

Mayor Jones is signing an executive order on surveillance transparency and accountability.

A reckless driver killed a mother and daughter from Chicago after a Drake concert downtown last week, a year after a Tennessee teen was hit and severely injured.

Janae Edmondson lost both of her legs after she was hit by a driver who sped through a yield sign and lost control of the vehicle, according to police.

“In September 2023, my administration worked in partnership with attorney’s, courts, law enforcement, community leaders and others on legislation which would allow the city to implement automated traffic enforcement like red light and speeding cameras,” Mayor Jones said.

She says the Board of Aldermen has had this piece of legislation for months but hasn’t acted upon it.

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“Since then, four people have died and more than 100 have sustained injuries from reckless and dangerous drivers,” she said. “This is unacceptable.”

Before anything is passed, some aldermen want public input and approval from all police surveillance tools, from cameras to artificial intelligence, to ensure they aren’t being misused.

“We sincerely believe that an executive order is an insufficient tool to achieve accountability. It simply requests compliance from departments and reiterates pre-existing regulations related to police conduct, that’re already established under federal law and that our city must already abide by,” Board President Megan Green said.

Aldermen are considering Bills 105 and 106 to bring back red light cameras and to fund neighborhood traffic safety programs like traffic calming and driver education.

“It is disappointing that we have been in conservation with the mayor for many months now and instead of working with board of aldermen (or) working with the community, instead she tried to under-hand the community and put out an executive order that actually does not bring over sight,” Alderman Rasheen Aldridge said.

The board hopes to have some of the bills passed before spring break.

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