The Encinitas City Council will hold a public hearing Wednesday, Sept. 9, on whether to bring back red-light cameras. Three children have been killed on city streets in three years.

The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. at City Council Chambers, 505 S. Vulcan Ave. It follows months of pressure from Safe Streets Encinitas, a community group formed after 12-year-old Emery Chalekian was killed crossing Encinitas Boulevard on April 25, 2025. The driver allegedly ran a red light.

Two other children also died on Encinitas streets. Brodee Champlain-Kingman, 15, was killed on his e-bike at South El Camino Real and Santa Fe Avenue in June 2023. Seraphina Rose Fadick, 17, was struck and killed while crossing El Camino Del Norte near Edelweiss Lane in Olivenhain on July 10, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. She died at the scene.

The city's Mobility and Traffic Safety Commission voted 5-1 in February to recommend that the council consider reinstalling the cameras. Commissioner Ron Medak cast the lone dissenting vote. But as of July, the recommendation still had not appeared on a council agenda, according to Safe Streets Encinitas.

"Prevent the next family from standing where I stand today," Bridget Chalekian, Emery's mother, told commissioners at the Feb. 9 meeting, as reported by the Union-Tribune.

After Fadick's death, Safe Streets Encinitas held a rally at City Hall on July 21 and submitted a list of demands, including an emergency town hall and a street safety task force. Laura Van Dusen, a founding member of the group, told the rally that "the city holds a portion of the responsibility to do everything they can to make sure it doesn't happen again," according to the Union-Tribune.

The council held a special session Aug. 26 to collect public comment on road safety, according to CBS 8.

A new state law makes reinstatement easier. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 720, the Safer Streets Act of 2025, on Oct. 13, 2025. Under the law, red-light camera violations are civil penalties, not criminal offenses. Fines start at $100 for a first offense and do not add points to a driver's license. Revenue must be reinvested in local traffic safety improvements such as pedestrian crossings and traffic calming, according to Encinitas Bike Walk.

Encinitas ran a red-light camera program at intersections including El Camino Real and Encinitas Boulevard from about 2004 through 2020. The council voted in May 2020 to end the contract, citing $490 ticket costs including court fees and concerns that most violations involved slow-roll right turns, according to Encinitas Bike Walk.

The intersection where Chalekian was killed is one block east of where the city once had cameras.

Newly installed cameras under SB 720 must include a 60-day warning period before fines take effect. As of February, only Del Mar and Solana Beach among North County cities operated red-light cameras, each with three, according to inewsource.

The Sept. 9 meeting agenda was scheduled to be posted on the city's website at encinitasca.gov by Friday, Sept. 4. Residents can submit public comment by email or speak during the hearing.