Northern Switzerland Aargau popular initiative against "speed camera proliferation" submitted

On Wednesday, the Aargau Young Finns submitted their cantonal popular initiative against the alleged "proliferation of speed cameras" to the State Chancellery. According to the Young Party, the initiative has 3091 certified signatures. The issue has been on everyone's mind in Aargau for years.

For an initiative to be launched in the canton of Aargau, at least 3,000 signatures must be collected from voters within a year. The State Chancellery will check whether the initiative has actually been successful.

The petition "Stop speed camera rip-offs! No speed camera proliferation in the canton of Aargau" was launched exactly one year ago. According to the initiators, the required authorization should ensure that "the monitoring systems are used specifically to improve safety and are not misused as a source of income".

Authorization for a maximum of 3 years

According to the text of the initiative, the government council can issue a permit to the cantonal police and the police forces of the municipalities if "there is a significant road safety deficit at the requested location".

The permit would be valid for a maximum of three years and warning signs would have to be put up. In future, semi-stationary installations would only be allowed to remain in the same location for a maximum of 72 hours.

After decades of no fixed installations, the issue of "tin policemen" has been hotly debated in Aargau for several years. In 2020, the city of Baden put a monitoring system into operation at the busy "Gstühl" junction.

This was preceded by a legal dispute. Following a negative decision by the cantonal government, the cantonal administrative court upheld an appeal by the city. During the debate on the revision of the Police Act, the Grand Council surprisingly decided against a cantonal permit requirement for "tin policemen" after a long discussion.

SDA