Cameras, not cops, may police intersections

News-Leader
Oct. 12, 2005

Cameras, not cops, may someday snag motorists who run red lights in Springfield.

City officials are resurrecting the idea in another effort to reduce crashes and the resulting injuries at intersections. The red-light cameras — if approved by the City Council in coming months — could also free police to deal with drunken drivers and neighborhood crime.

Broadside crashes, also known as right-angle or T-bone wrecks, last year in Springfield cost about $28 million — almost twice as much as 2004's reported violent and property crimes, said Earl Newman, assistant director of Springfield Public Works.

Although some question the cameras' effectiveness, proponents of photo enforcement in Springfield point to sharp reductions in red-light violations in cities such as Fairfax, Va., and Los Angeles that use the cameras.

"If you look at these communities, overwhelmingly, you will see that these cameras are effective in reducing red-light violations," police Lt. Jay Huff said in a presentation to Springfield City Council members Tuesday.

Huff added that some cities using the cameras have seen reductions in overall crashes. And because red-light runners tend to crash into vehicles' more vulnerable sides, Huff suggested red-light cameras could help reduce severity of injuries, as well as cut down on traffic tie-ups and save emergency responders money.

City officials hope red-light cameras at accident-prone intersections will ultimately save taxpayers in the long run, and they say photo enforcement isn't a scheme to increase city revenue.

"Public safety is the issue," Police Chief Lynn Rowe said, adding: "We're not out here just trying to just catch people and getting revenue."

While cities with red-light cameras have generally seen a decrease of about 50 percent in red-light violations, it's unclear whether red-light cameras make roads safer, said Mark Burkey, an economics professor at the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, who has studied the issue.

"When you talk about safety, most of the research also agrees that you see an increase in the number of rear-end accidents," as motorists who are afraid of getting caught slam on brakes when they see yellow lights, Burkey said.

In a 2004 study looking at five years' worth of crash data in Greensboro, N.C., Burkey said researchers found that crashes reduced almost twice as much at intersections without cameras as those with cameras.

"We don't see any evidence that the red-light cameras are working to reduce accidents," he said, adding that he has no evidence to disprove their effectiveness.

Springfield's incidence of red-light-related crashes had been getting worse in recent years, statistics showed, despite a "Respect Red" sign campaign to curb red-light running.

And police argue that enforcing red lights without cameras is dangerous and labor intensive for officers.

"I can't have a policeman at every intersection," Rowe said.

PRIVACY CONCERNS

Red-light cameras were proposed in Springfield a few years ago, but the effort failed in 2001 when some council members expressed concerns over privacy. Then-Mayor Lee Gannaway called the idea of cameras at intersections "Big Brother taking pictures."

City officials expressed interest in a system that would allow authorities to prosecute only with pictures of license plates, possibly precluding the need for pictures of drivers for successful prosecution.

"Nobody wants to think that the government's watching their every move," City Prosecutor Johnnie Burgess said, and the City Council is sensitive to that.

Rowe said the cameras would be "strictly" for red-light enforcement, not for criminal investigations. The chief noted that drivers activate the system as they move into intersections once lights turn red.

City Attorney Dan Wichmer said the city plans to craft an ordinance to allow prosecution based on the presumption that cars' owners are likely also to be their drivers.

While Missouri court rulings are unclear on whether such a standard applies to red-light violations, courts have upheld prosecution of owners of cars in school bus stop-arm violations, Wichmer said.

Will Worsham, a defense attorney who runs the Springfield-based MissouriTrafficTickets.com, thinks red-light tickets based on license plates could be successfully challenged.

But either way, the driver-owner question may not matter, as most people pay traffic tickets without challenging them, he said.

"From a practical standpoint, it's going to work, because people aren't familiar enough with the system" to challenge devices such as red-light cameras, Worsham said.

Wichmer expected an initial increase in city revenue were Springfield to adopt a red-light camera system. Running a red light in Springfield costs violators a $100 fine plus a $24 court cost, he said.

CHALLENGES

City officials are looking toward challenges to photo enforcement in the St. Louis suburb of Arnold, where cameras at four intersections went online this week, Arnold Mayor Mark Powell said.

Arnold authorities plan to send out warnings for the first few weeks and then tickets, Powell said. Photo enforcement there comes in the wake of three fatalities over the past couple of years.

"This is purely a safety issue as far as we're concerned," he said.

Arnold faced no up-front costs for the camera system, Powell said. Under a lease agreement, American Traffic Systems would get roughly a 30 percent cut of a red-light violation's $94 fine there.

In Springfield, city officials plan to study whether a leasing system would be most cost-effective. Purchasing equipment could cost the city as much as $100,000 or more for each intersection, depending on the system used, Huff said.

Councilwoman Mary Collette said she wanted a red-light camera system that would recoup any costs. "We want it to pay for itself," she said.

Huff said it was too early to know when city leaders would get a proposal on red-light cameras, and when cameras — and how many — would be installed. He said it likely wouldn't happen in the next six months.

"I don't know that we can move that quick," he said, noting officials don't want to move hastily as they research the issue.

At the City Council meeting, Huff said city officials wanted drivers to know, perhaps with signs, that they would be photographed to encourage better driving.

Said Huff: "We're not trying to make this a secret deal."