Judge dismisses lawsuit over Buffalo speed camera removal

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit against the city of Buffalo challenging the constitutionality of its since-disbanded school zone speed camera program.

An Amherst business filed a lawsuit in 2021 after one of its vehicles was cited for going 38 mph in a 15 mph zone near the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood Children’s Academy on Bailey Avenue.

Homestead Repair and Renovation, joined in the lawsuit by a ticketed motorist, called the BPN Academy camera unauthorized and the program unconstitutional, adding that the $50 fines paid to the city for speeding amounted to unjust enrichment.

U.S. District Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. dismissed those claims last February, and U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. this week adopted Schroeder’s recommendation to dismiss the lawsuit.

The company argued that the area around BPN Academy did not meet the definition of a school speed zone. The academy provides childcare and preschool daycare services.

The company’s lawyer said the magistrate judge took the fact-finding task away from the jury.

At its peak, the city installed speed cameras around 20 schools. The last one was deactivated in July 2021.