Brian Ceccarelli thought he had vanquished red light cameras. For more than a decade, the software engineer in Cary fought to rid North Carolina intersections of the cameras that automatically capture vehicles running reds and mail fines to their drivers.
In 2010, Ceccarelli sued the town of Cary following his second red light citation, arguing the length of time given for yellow lights was too short. He brought a white board to the courtroom, serving as plaintiff and expert witness. He lost the case, but won the war, as Cary soon shuttered its program.
Ceccarelli wasn’t done. He set up a website, called Red Light Robber, where he recruited plaintiffs to take on other red light camera systems. The past three years have brought a string of successes, with Raleigh, Fayetteville, Wilmington and Greenville all ditching their cameras. Raleigh didn’t renew its system in March 2024, citing “third-party litigation.”…