COLUMBIA, S.C. - Some senators say a bill letting local governments use cameras to catch people running red lights could be unconstitutional.

People caught by the cameras would face a civil fine, while those caught the old-fashioned way would be charged with a crime.

The Senate has been debating legislation that would let local governments use cameras to take dozens of pictures a second showing a car running a red light. Under the bill Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, has been pushing, tickets with civil fines would be issued to the car owner.

The legislation doesn't require local governments to use that system or change the existing laws on red lights.

"In one county, it is a crime and in another county, it is not. That is a valid equal protection question," Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said Wednesday during the taping of a weekly Senate news conference sponsored by Souh Carolina ETV, the South Carolina Press Association and the South Carolina Broadcasters Association.

Last week, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal convinced the Senate Judiciary Committee to retool an unrelated bill that lets counties or prosecutors set up traffic court diversion programs. Drivers with four-point tickets could have those offenses erased in exchange for community service. But, at the time, the bill did not require a uniform, statewide program.

"That creates a big equal protection problem with those that don't have the benefit of the program and are going to continue to have those four points," Toal told the committee, which McConnell chairs.

It is the same problem that arose when a pilot program of criminal pretrial intervention began in Richland County years ago, Toal said.

"It was struck down because it created a situation where some enjoyed diversion and some did not," Toal said. "And that is why pretrial intervention is a program available in all (judicial) circuits," Toal said.

A second common issue involves how the traffic offenses are handled.

Toal said she was concerned about the driver diversion program because participants wouldn't have their points recorded.

"That seems to me to undermine fairness in reporting traffic offenses in South Carolina because it sets up a difference in treatment," Toal said.

The red light program's civil tickets would not result in points assessed against a driver's license because they are issued against the car's owner, not the driver. A traditional ticket shows up on a driver's record and can increase insurance rates. If enough points are incurred, the license can be suspended.

At the news conference, Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, said the constitutional concerns are a major problem for the red-light camera bill.

One ticket would be "issued by an officer who was there ... who could use some common sense in determining whether the laws of this state were violated and rise to the level of citing someone," Grooms said.

The other ticket, Grooms said, would be the product of "a cold, heartless machine" and "regardless of the circumstances, a $100 ticket is going to be issued."

Richardson said the constitutional issue is not a problem.

Legislators would be making a decision that "we're going to carve out a different law for this violation and we're doing it for safety reasons," Richardson said.

"That's why we are putting this on the books so that we can hopefully reduce the number of accidents, reduce the number of deaths and we're willing to separate that," Richardson said. "And we're willing to have two different offenses."