Allegany County, MD Mobility & Curb Rules: Red-Light Cameras (2026)

Effective November 24, 2019, § 461-9 (added by Bill No. 2-19) forbids County police from using a "traffic law photo-monitoring device," defined as a camera system that automatically photographs a vehicle, its driver or its license plate, to detect or prove a traffic violation. Subsection B limits the ban to "roadways constructed or improved and accepted into the County roads system for maintenance," so it does not reach State Highway Administration roads or streets inside incorporated towns like Cumberland or Frostburg. Subsection C bars officers from using such a device on those County roads to determine compliance with, or detect a violation of, any County ordinance or Code provision governing vehicle operation, and Subsection D goes further: even if a device captured the evidence, it cannot be used to prove such a violation happened.

The ban is narrow rather than absolute. Subsection E preserves ordinary radar and lidar speed-measuring devices that use microwaves or reflected light, so traditional speed enforcement continues. Subsection F allows a photo-monitoring device to keep operating for any lawful purpose other than proving a Code traffic violation, and Subsection G confirms the section does not stop the State of Maryland or a municipality inside Allegany County from running its own program on roads it maintains. In practice, Allegany County itself cannot install red-light or automated speed cameras to write citations on county roads, while Cumberland, Frostburg or the state could still operate such systems on roads each of them maintains.