Anne Arundel County in Maryland has been running five red light cameras for five years, during which period they raised a fat $2.85 million in ticket revenue. Unfortunately, a comparison of accident statistics shows that the cameras have increased the rate of accidents.

Immediately after installation, the cameras sparked a 40-percent increase in rear-end collisions, and never looked back, with five-year increases in accident rates far exceeding a 10-percent increase in traffic.

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New cameras will soon start taking digital images of red-light runners, Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

In the event of an emergency, the cameras, which are from Nestor Traffic Systems Inc., could also provide live images, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The city’s contract with Affiliated Computer Services lapsed last year and red-light cameras at 16 intersections were deactivated. The contract was not renewed because officials learned that 20 percent of photographed red-light violations were dismissed “due to lack of clear evidence to prove the violation,” according to police.

The City Council has approved a $3.12 million contract with Nestor to install camera systems at as many as 32 intersections.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed accident data at a number of intersections across Georgia and found accidents and injuries are increasing, not decreasing, as a result of the use of red light cameras. Cities employing these devices are, however, generating substantial revenue from their photo ticket programs.

In Marietta, rear-end collisions increased 49 percent from 65 to 97 from 2004 to 2005. At the intersection of Cobb Parkway and Windy Hill road, there were 108 accidents of all types in 2004 and 163 in 2005. Since their installation, red light cameras have generated $2.7 million for the city.

In Duluth, accidents increased 21 percent, from 75 to 91, between March 2004 and February 2005 compared with March 2005 and February 2006. The city’s lone camera made $790,000 in the current fiscal year and should make a million the next.

Eric Skrum, communications director for the National Motorists Association says the data show cameras are not working as promised. “These devices don’t increase safety at all,” he said, “I certainly don’t consider it a safety improvement when you have more of one type of accident and less of another.”

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Smile for the street sweeper. Mayor Rick Gray’s administration wants to streamline the city’s method of sweeping streets and ticketing motorists who do not move their cars for the posted sweeping times.

Gray said Monday the city is considering adding digital cameras to its sweepers.

Sweeper drivers would snap pictures of license plates on illegally parked cars, and tickets would be issued later, the mayor said. Those images would include the date and time.

“There is no new policy in effect right now,” Gray said, but he added that a change may come later in the spring. “There will be plenty of notice,’’ he said.

Hmmm…I wonder what else they will be photographing with those street sweeper cameras? Or what else they will use it for, in the future?

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City Council is poised to introduce a new automated traffic camera ordinance that could clarify any language thrown out in a pending ruling by Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge David Henderson.

Henderson held a four-hour hearing Thursday on a request by attorney Gary Stern and his wife, April, for a permanent injunction stopping the use of the cameras. The city began using the Traffipax portable cameras on Sept. 22, but the practice was halted on Dec. 5 when Henderson issued a preliminary injunction. The cameras were mainly used on Lovers Lane, Ohio 7 and in front of Harding Middle School.

Stern has maintained the city failed to follow its own ordinance by failing to publish notice of locations of the cameras; failing to erect conspicuous signs; and failing to maintain a list of locations to be monitored by the cameras. Stern also has alleged the traffic camera ordinance is unconstitutional because it makes a criminal offense a civil violation and violates the due process rights of the driver by allowing a city police officer to hear appeals of the tickets.

The city, through Assistant Law Director Costa Mastros, has maintained the city can regulate street traffic because it has home-rule authority as a charter city.

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