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What Laws Are Impacting Grand Rapids Area Residents

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Tag: Automotive Law

Grand Rapids to put Flock & other license plate reader usage under annual review

September 1, 2026
The City of Grand Rapids will put Flock camera and other automated license plate reader systems use under an annual review starting next year, City Manager Mark Washington said on Friday.
Washington said that he will issue an administrative order next month that will put the Grand Rapids Police Department's automated license plate reader system (ALPR) under the City’s Surveillance Technology Policy. It comes after feedback from the city commission and public safety commission.
Read more at Fox 17

Green lights for good drivers: A new approach to traffic safety

August 30, 2026
Officials struggled for years to curb high-speed crashes along a residential corridor cutting through Albuquerque, New Mexico, but simply punishing the lead-footed drivers didn’t seem to work.
What ultimately did was rewarding the law-abiding ones with fewer red lights.
The solution, which the city credits for a dramatic drop in crashes and injuries along one busy stretch of road, is a relatively novel version of a longstanding traffic safety concept commonly known as “rest in red," in which traffic signals default to red until a vehicle approaches. But Albuquerque and Portland, Oregon, took it a step further by adding speed sensors that grant a much earlier green light to drivers traveling at or below the posted limit.
Read more at Fox 17
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Flock’s Ai Cameras May Have Misread Over 70% of License Plates

August 8, 2026
Following up on complaints about Flock Safety flagging vehicles incorrectly, the police department of Roseville, California, ran its own analysis of the cameras, studying nearly 1,500 Flock reports. They found an astonishing 71% failure rate, where the cameras would mistake one license plate number for another.
That’s not just a snafu. Mistaking one number for another, like seeing a 7 as a 1, can lead Flock cameras to incorrectly identify an innocent vehicle as one that was previously stolen. That’s exactly what happened in the California situation, where a citizen complained that the cameras were repeatedly flagging his car to police as stolen because the AI technology interpreted a 9 as an 8.
Read more at CNET
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Byron Township bans e-bikes and scooters from sidewalks

July 16, 2026

The new ordinance is designed to improve safety for pedestrians by prohibiting the operation of golf carts, e-bikes, motorized scooters, ATV's, ORV's, motorcycles, mopeds, and other motorized vehicles on township sidewalks and pathways. The ordinance does provide exceptions for motorized wheelchairs.

Read more at Fox 17

Flock Cameras Wrongly Tracked Me for Days

July 11, 2026

How Flock Cameras Wrongly Tracked Me for Days Over ‘Stolen’ Plates and Sent Police After Me

"We now live in a surveillance state where cameras mounted on stoplights are tracking our cars, our devices, our pets, and even us. This is just the beginning; next, these cameras could be put in motion using our kids’ school buses. Whether you’ve actually stolen a car or are just rolling down the road having done nothing wrong, like me, once these systems have you in their crosshairs, there’s pretty much only one way it can go. Welcome to the future. It’s scary out there."

Read more at The Drive

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Woman without right hand speaks out about viral traffic stop video

June 8, 2026
A Florida woman’s traffic citation for driving while texting with her right hand was dropped after bodycam footage showed that she only had one hand.
A Palm Beach County, Florida, sheriff’s office deputy pulled over Kathleen Thomas, 36, of Lake Worth Beach, Florida, for violating Florida’s texting-while-driving law in February
Read more at CBS News
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West Michigan sobriety court helps repeat OWI offenders turn their lives around

May 21, 2026
Kentwood neighbors are warning others about the dangers of drunk driving, sharing their firsthand experiences before turning their lives around with the West Michigan Sobriety Court program.
The program, based at the 62-B District Court in Kentwood, has been operating for 11 years and has logged 393 total participants.
Its mission is to increase public safety and reduce the number of alcohol related traffic deaths and injuries.
Read more at Fox 17

Michigan Federal Judge Awaiting Drunken-Driving Trial

January 27, 2026
A Michigan federal judge is awaiting trial on drunken-driving charges following his October arrest, during which officials said his blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit.
Judge Thomas L. Ludington of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan faces misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 or more and operating a vehicle while intoxicated, according to the complaint filed by a local prosecutor
Read more at Bloomberg Law

Did auto insurance overhaul help Michigan motorists?

January 7, 2026

It’s been more than six years since Michigan officials approved bipartisan reforms aimed at driving down sky-high auto insurance costs. Yet the question remains: was it a net positive for Michigan drivers?

Read more at Bridge Michigan

Plea or poop? Road rage defecator takes rehab over trial

December 16, 2025
A Delaware County, Pennsylvania, woman — known regionally as the “Delco Pooper” after she was captured on video angrily defecating on a car — avoided trial Tuesday, instead entering into a rehabilitative program for her fecal faults.
“I wanted to punch her in the face, but I pooped on her car instead and went home,” Solometo said, according to the affidavit.
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