City leaders held a public hearing Tuesday night to discuss using cameras to catch people who run red lights.
Some drivers are worried the wrong people will be ticketed. Others said they hope the cameras cut down on dangerous driving.
If approved, Kansas City would be one of four cities in the state using the red-light cameras.
Councilman Bob Hunter wants to bring red light cameras to some of Victorville’s busiest intersections.
The plan, according to Hunter, calls for a pilot program to be in place within six months.
“Red light cameras are a great tool for reducing accidents and stopping traffic light violations,” Hunter said Wednesday.
Fullerton Traffic Engineer Mark Miller said that since red light cameras were installed in the city three years ago safety has improved.
“It has reduced accidents and red light violations. It has also had a ripple effect on other intersections,” Miller said. “Some drivers are not sure if we have cameras in all our intersections.”
Again, be sure to visit HERE for the real scoop on Red Light Camera’s lack of effectiveness
Knoxville’s first red light camera snapped dozens of red-light runners in its first few days. They’ll get off with a warning this time. But starting May 24, violators will face $50 fines.
That could mean big money for the City of Knoxville and Redflex, the camera company, based out of Austrailia (the money isn’t even staying in America!). That’s one reason critics say they’re not here for safety.
“Photo Cops” in Minneapolis captured images of t-bone wrecks and ticketed 26,000 violators in eight months. Then the American Civil Liberties Union sued. “You’re automatically guilty of a crime, and that’s just wrong,” MN ACLU spokesperson Chuck Samuelson said.
A Minnesota judge recently shut the cameras down.
“Here we had a tool that worked, it reduced accidents by 16 percent,” Lt. Greg Reinhardt of the Minneapolis Police explained.
These red light camera studies prove otherwise.
Cleveland, Ohio is expanding its lucrative red light camera and speed camera program to include the confiscation of cars. The city council is considering an “emergency” ordinance to make it a crime to own a vehicle that “displays license plates that are associated with four or more of any combination of unpaid parking infraction judgments and/or notices of liability for… or red light or speeding violations.” The guilt or innocence of the owner to the original charge is irrelevant to the city.
The proposed ordinance also blocks the renewal of car registrations for anyone the city claims has not paid all fines. It also allows the city to contract with private bounty hunters to collect on unpaid tickets. The cash-strapped city is looking to these private contractors to collect millions in outstanding fines.
Under the proposed ordinance, seized vehicles will only be released if the owner admits guilt and pays towing, storage, impound and administrative fees on top of cost of the original tickets. Cleveland Police have already admitted that they do not review all photo enforcement tickets for accuracy before the private vendor ACS issues them. The city plans to make $4 million a year from camera tickets.
Last August, a judge in Albuquerque, New Mexico struck down a similar camera seizure ordinance as unconstitutional.
Since they were first installed in 1998 red light cameras in San Diego have never reduced accidents, but they have generated millions for the city — $16,279,772 until a Superior Court declared the program illegal in 2001. The city recently restarted ticketing, but officials are not satisfied with the amount of money they have been raising. In response, Mayor Jerry Sanders is now proposing either to drop the program entirely or adjust camera settings to trap more motorists at stoplights.
Mayor Sanders told KGTV television that he wants to reduce the amount of time allowed after a light changes from yellow to red before a ticket is issued. This “grace time,” according to a 2002 audit, ranged from 0.3 to 0.5 seconds in San Diego. Sanders proposes to drop it to a lightning-quick 0.1 seconds to issue even more citations and bolster the program’s income.
In 2000, motorists caught San Diego using illegally short yellow times at intersections that had red light cameras. Court action forced the city quietly to increase the yellow time at a number of intersections with the number of violations instantly dropping. At Mission Bay and Grand Avenue, for example, violations dropped from a rate of 363.4 per 100 enforcement hours to an average of 42.2 the day after the yellow was lengthened.
