SB City could become leader in Redlight cameras

SAN BERNARDINO — The city’s budget may be strained, but police leaders say they can have their traffic surveillance systems and be cost-conscious too.

In what could become the largest system in San Bernardino County, San Bernardino Police Department officials recommend leasing more than $2 million annually worth of red light traffic camera technology. If approved, the contract would expand the city’s coverage to 11 intersections from four and add two officer positions to help administer the system.

Red light camera’s snap photos of drivers who breach red light signals, freezing evidence for traffic citations.
According to a report prepared by the Police Department, the roughly $4.5 million in costs for new cameras and officers through 2010 would be recouped through ticket revenues.

Whether the City Council will approve the expansion April 21 is another question.

In an April 9 memo distributed throughout City Hall, City Attorney James F. Penman advised City Manager Fred Wilson that laws originally permitting red light cameras stipulated that cameras be installed in intersections with the highest accident rates. Penman cautioned that a council member had already requested that an intersection not be outfitted, but that accident rates must decide.
“Politics must not enter this equation,” Penman wrote.

At least one legislator, 4th Ward Councilman Neil Derry, has come out against the cameras, arguing that expansion has become more about increasing revenues than increasing public safety.
“The city should not be generating revenue on the backs of middle class taxpayers trying to get to work or coming to shop in our city,” Derry said.

Derry voted in favor of the initial cameras, installed beginning in 2005.
But Derry said he now dislikes high ratios of tickets for slow-rolling right turns against red lights and said local commuters are driving more safely.

Derry said he thinks all the cameras should be removed when contracts expire.
“There’s a fine line between civil liberties and public safety,” Derry said. “The reason I voted for the first ones wasn’t revenue, but because our Police Department told us that accidents with deaths and injuries would be greatly reduced. I held my nose and voted for it.”

But 7th Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack, an original proponent of the camera contracts, said the safety gains are clear and cost-effective, while freeing officers to spend more time tracking criminals than nabbing traffic infractions.

“This is not about revenue generating, it’s about saving lives,” McCammack said.
McCammack pointed to the proposed contract’s revenue-neutral provisions and statistics showing accident reductions as proof the system is effective.

Revenue-neutral contracts mean cities won't be saddled with payments if ticket revenues fall below contract costs, but profit when revenues exceed costs.

She added that her support is personal: In the late 1990s, she and her two young daughters were T-boned by a red light running driver at Arrowhead Avenue and 30th Street, only escaping serious injury because she was driving a large SUV, she said.

“If you have a chance to keep your citizens safe, you should do whatever you can to do it,” McCammack said.

According to Police Department statistics, the current cameras - the first of which were installed in July 2005 - have been successful in reducing accidents and injuries. The cameras, which are leased from Providence, R.I.-based Nestor Traffic Systems Inc. at a cost of $391,200 annually, have resulted in more than 10,000 citations while dropping collisions and injuries by more than half, according to statistics provided by Lt. Scott Paterson, a department spokesman.

Financially, the cameras do not burden the city’s general fund.

Revenue-neutral contracts, the soup de jour among local cities including Victorville, Grand Terrace and Rancho Cucamonga, stipulate that leasing costs are covered by traffic tickets, and if the ticket revenue falls below the leasing costs, the company absorbs the loss.

But it’s the type of tickets that has helped sour Derry on the technology.
Police Department statistics show the vast majority of tickets, all standard $391 red light violations, are rolling right hand turns. Cameras monitoring traffic traveling northbound at Waterman Avenue and Hospitality Lane captured 1,464 right turn violations between Jan. 1 and March 31, while spotting just 105 left turn violations and 31 straight-through red light runners over the same period.

“$400 for rolling through a right hand turn?” Derry said. “It’s quite clear this is more about revenue than safety.”

Less than half of states nationally permit privately-run red light ticketing systems, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Studies, including one from the Federal Highway Administration, generally conclude that cameras reduce more serious T-bone accidents, but can cause an increase in rear-end collisions.

The proposal could be a test for the San Bernardino Police Department, which has been granted virtually every program request it has made since Mayor Pat Morris’ administration began in early 2006.

Current intersections using red light cameras to ticket violating motorists:

Waterman Avenue and Hospitality Lane
40th Street and Waterman Avenue
Highland Avenue and Arden Street
30th Street and Waterman Avenue

Proposed intersections for red light camera enforcement technology:

University Parkway and Kendall Drive
Tippecanoe Avenue and San Bernardino Avenue
Victoria Avenue and Citrus Avenue
Waterman Avenue and Highland Avenue
E Street and Orange Show Road
Mt. Vernon Avenue and Ninth Street
Tippecanoe Avenue and Harriman Avenue