D.C. Traffic Camera Enforcement Fails in Maryland and Virginia

WASHINGTON -- The District of Columbia has largely failed to meet its goal of getting Maryland and Virginia to cooperate in collecting traffic camera ticket fines, according to a new report from the mayor.

Mayor Muriel Bowser updated the D.C. Council this month on progress toward traffic ticket enforcement described in the city’s Vision Zero Omnibus Act.

The D.C.. Council approved Vision Zero in September 2020 as a means of reducing traffic deaths and serious injuries within five years. A list of strategies in the bill required the mayor to seek reciprocity agreements with Maryland and Virginia to force their residents to pay District of Columbia fines imposed through traffic cameras.

D.C. drivers would be compelled to pay Maryland and Virginia traffic camera tickets under the agreement.

Bowser’s report says the governors from the two states are refusing to participate.

Instead, “both jurisdictions declined to enter into a reciprocity agreement based on the determination that such an agreement would negatively impact the customer service of their motor vehicle offices,” the mayor’s report says.

Tickets written by police already are subject to reciprocity under a separate agreement. Typically, drivers’ registrations and licenses are suspended until they pay the fines. States that enforce the out-of-state fines then receive a percentage of the amount recovered.

However, the Non-Resident Violators Compact does not extend to traffic camera tickets.

A D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles report last year showed Maryland and Virginia drivers owe Washington more than $373 million in fines from outstanding parking and traffic citations.

The mayor reported that new negotiations on reciprocity between D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles officials and their counterparts in Maryland and Virginia are scheduled to begin as soon as this month.

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