People v. GrayPeople v. Gray
KENNARD, J.—Statutory law allows a city to install at an intersection an automated traffic enforcement device that photographs a traffic law offender,
Defendant‘s view finds support in the overall statutory scheme involving automated traffic enforcement. Thus, unlike the Court of Appeal, we conclude that the public announcement and warning requirements apply to each installation of such a device. We nevertheless affirm the Court of Appeal, which upheld defendant‘s conviction, because, like that court, we reject defendant‘s argument that compliance with the statute‘s requirement of a 30-day period of warning notices is a precondition to issuing a valid citation for a red light traffic law violation.
I
In 1998, the City of Culver City (the City) installed its first automated traffic enforcement device, at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and La Cienega Boulevard, under the authority of section 21455.5‘s subdivision (a). For convenience, we will refer to such devices as “red light cameras,” as that is the term used in popular discourse. In compliance with section 21455.5(b), the City made a public announcement concerning its initial red light camera, and it gave violators warning notices, instead of citations, for the first 30 days that the camera was operational. Thereafter, the City installed red light cameras at several other intersections without making new public announcements, and without giving violators warning notices, instead of citations, for the first 30 days that a camera was operational at a new intersection.
In June 2006, the City installed a red light camera at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Helms Avenue, without a public announcement and without an initial 30-day period of warning notices. More than two years later, in November 2008, that camera photographed a car registered to defendant Steven Edward Gray driving through a red traffic light, and a citation was issued. (
Defendant pled not guilty and sought dismissal, asserting that the City had failed to comply with section 21455.5(b)‘s requirements of a public announcement and a 30-day period of warning notices with respect to the
At trial, defendant stipulated that he was the driver depicted in the photographic evidence recorded by the red light camera. In addition, the police officer in charge of the City‘s red light camera enforcement program testified about the installation, functioning, operation, and maintenance of the device.
The trial court found defendant guilty of the charge of not stopping for a red light (
The Court of Appeal ordered the case transferred to itself. (See
II
A. Section 21455.5(b)
For example, subdivision (a) of section 21455.5 states that “[t]he limit line, the intersection, or a place designated in Section 21455 . . . may be equipped with an automated traffic enforcement system . . . .” (Italics added.) As used there, the word “system” necessarily refers to the specific equipment in operation at a particular intersection, not to the entire citywide red light camera enforcement program. Similarly, subdivision (a)(1) of section 21455.5 requires a city to “[i]dentif[y] the system by signs posted within 200 feet of an intersection where a system is operating . . . .” (Italics added.) And that statute‘s subdivision (a)(2) requires cities to “locate[] the system at an intersection.” (
The City responds by noting that elsewhere in section 21455.5, the word “system” appears to have a broader meaning, referring to the entire citywide red light camera enforcement program. As an example, the City points to section 21455.5‘s subdivision (d), which permits cities to “contract[] out” “operation of the system.” The City argues that the Legislature was referring to a single contract for the entire city, and therefore “system” as used in section 21455.5, subdivision (d) does not refer merely to the automated traffic enforcement device at a single intersection. (See
Because there is ambiguity regarding the scope of the word “system” in section 21455.5(b)—as highlighted by the conflicting statutory constructions adopted by the Court of Appeal here and by the appellate division of the superior court in People v. Park, supra, 187 Cal.App.4th Supp. 9—we need to go beyond the statutory language and consider the statute‘s legislative history. (People v. King, supra, 38 Cal.4th 617, 622.) Did the Legislature‘s use of the word “system” in section 21455.5(b) refer to the red light camera installed at a specific intersection, or does “system” refer to the entire citywide red light camera enforcement program? We explore that issue below.
The Legislature enacted section 21455.5 in 1995 as an expansion of an existing statutory scheme that authorized red light cameras at railroad crossings, and the railroad crossing statutory scheme uses intersection-specific language when referring to such cameras. (See
Public policy supports that conclusion. The warning notices required by section 21455.5(b) serve to inform the drivers who frequently use a particular intersection that the city‘s enforcement method has changed. We see no justification for a rule requiring warnings to drivers who frequently use one intersection, but not to drivers who frequently use a different intersection.
The legislative history of section 21455.5(b) thus demonstrates that the statute‘s use of the word “system” refers to the red light camera used at a particular intersection or vehicle stopping point. Therefore, the City should have complied with section 21455.5(b)‘s requirements of (1) publicly announcing in 2006 its intention to use a red light camera at the intersection where defendant was cited and (2) issuing warning notices instead of citations for the first 30 days of the camera‘s operation at that intersection.
B. Effect of City‘s Noncompliance with Section 21455.5(b)
Defendant argues that he cannot be convicted of violating the red light traffic law (
Section 21455.5(b)‘s phrase “[p]rior to issuing citations” merely states when the warning notices must be given; it does not create a jurisdictional condition to enforcement of the red light traffic law (
When, as here, a statute sets forth a procedural requirement but does not set forth any penalty for noncompliance, a party may reasonably question whether the statute is merely directory, not mandatory. “[T]he ‘mandatory’ or ‘directory’ designation does not refer to whether a particular statutory requirement is obligatory or permissive, but instead denotes ‘“whether the failure to comply with a particular procedural step will or will not have the effect of invalidating the governmental action to which the procedural requirement relates.“’ [Citation.]” (City of Santa Monica v. Gonzales (2008) 43 Cal.4th 905, 923–924 [76 Cal.Rptr.3d 483, 182 P.3d 1027] (City of Santa Monica).) Courts must examine “whether the statutory requirement at issue was intended to provide protection or benefit to . . . individuals . . . or was instead simply designed to serve some collateral, administrative purpose.” (People v. McGee (1977) 19 Cal.3d 948, 963 [140 Cal.Rptr. 657, 568 P.2d 382].) If the latter, then it is merely directory, and failure to comply with it does not invalidate later governmental action. (See, e.g., In re Richard S. (1991) 54 Cal.3d 857, 866 [2 Cal.Rptr.2d 2, 819 P.2d 843] [finding a rule that used the term “shall,” but that served only an administrative purpose, to be directory, not mandatory]; Cal-Air Conditioning, Inc. v. Auburn Union School Dist. (1993) 21 Cal.App.4th 655, 673 [26 Cal.Rptr.2d 703] [“‘provisions defining time and mode in which public officials shall discharge their duties and which are obviously designed merely to secure order, uniformity, system and dispatch in the public bureaucracy are generally held to be directory‘“].)
Here, section 21455.5(b)‘s requirement of a 30-day period of warning notices was for the benefit of those violators whose red light violations at the intersection in question occurred when the red light camera first became operational. Because the requirement lapsed, by its own terms, after 30 days, it could not have been for the benefit of a violator like defendant, whose red light violation at the intersection occurred more than two years later. Therefore, if the city had issued a citation to a driver during the 30-day period when it should have been issuing warning notices under section 21455.5(b), that driver could have challenged the citation on the basis of noncompliance with the statute. Defendant here, however, is not among the class of people that the 30-day period of warning notices was intended to benefit, and therefore he may not invoke the City‘s noncompliance with the warning notice requirement to invalidate his traffic citation. (See, e.g., People v. Gonzales (1986) 188 Cal.App.3d 586, 590 [233 Cal.Rptr. 204] [the defendant lacked standing to raise the issue of noncompliance with statutes pertaining to negotiated pleas because the statutes were not enacted for the benefit of criminal defendants].)
According to defendant, rejection of his argument—that a city‘s compliance with section 21455.5(b)‘s requirement of a 30-day period of warning notices is a jurisdictional precondition to enforcement of the red light traffic law (
III
We disagree with the Court of Appeal here that section 21455.5(b)‘s requirements apply only to the initial installation of a red light camera within a city. Rather, those requirements apply each time such a camera is installed. We agree with the Court of Appeal, however, in rejecting defendant‘s argument that noncompliance with section 21455.5(b)‘s requirement of a 30-day period of warning notices precludes the City‘s prosecution of defendant for violating the red light traffic law. Accordingly, we agree with the Court of Appeal‘s decision to uphold defendant‘s conviction.
The judgment of the Court of Appeal is affirmed.
Cantil-Sakauye, C. J., Baxter, J., Werdegar, J., Chin, J., Corrigan, J., and Liu, J., concurred.