Red Light Redemption
Is photo enforcement a big money grab, or are the city's intersections safer than ever?
By David S. Lewis |
|
Illustration by Laura Sanders The grainy video on the computer screen depicts a busy intersection. The two pedestrians, a woman and a little girl clutching the string of a balloon, step into the intersection from the right. They make it several feet before the car crashing into them obscures them from view. The clinical grayness of the video makes the balloon even more horrifying as it drifts upward, away from the tragedy.
"This is why we have these cameras," said Columbus police officer A.J. Zacher solemnly.
Situations like this are captured every day by red light enforcement cameras, but they remain a controversial tool of law enforcement. Some think that the cameras represent Orwell's Big Brother, an oversized government watching the every move of its hapless citizenry. Others question the reliability of the camera operator, or wonder whether municipalities desperate for revenues can manipulate the videos. Others, like Republican state senator Bill Seitz, don't seem to know how red lights work, and can't understand why these pesky white robo-cops are taking our money in the first place.
Safety first
Officer Zacher runs the "Focus on Safety" red light camera enforcement program - or at least the part that is handled by the Columbus police force. Most of the work is done by Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems, the company that installed the 20 cameras at 18 intersections. The cameras, provided to Columbus at no up-front cost, were phased in beginning in 2006. Zacher explained that a motorist activates the system when the vehicle crosses the stop line, which is typically just before the crosswalk. The main camera, which records video 24 hours a day, documents the incident beginning from a few feet behind the stop line, while a second camera uses a flash to record the license plate (see below).
The package is relayed to Redflex, which has purchased Ohio's BMV records. When the final report is sent to police headquarters, Zacher doesn't even have to run the violator's plates. All she has to do is determine whether the motorist came to a stop - if not, she writes them a ticket.
"We watch every video, to make sure it is a fair violation, and we do make mistakes," said Zacher, who boasts of the program's transparency. "I'll dismiss it right now if I make a mistake. We pride ourselves on running a fair program."
Included on the notice are three photos of the violation as it occurred, a close-up of the license plate, and a Web link to the video of their transgression.
Of the $95 fine, $36.10 currently goes to the city. The rest goes to Redflex. With 20 cameras in constant operation, that ends up being a significant chunk of change; of the approximately $4.5 million raised since the program's inception in 2006, the city has collected just over $2 million.
But, according to George Speaks, deputy director of the department of safety, the Redflex contract is changing, and to the city's advantage. The company is to install another 20 cameras at intersections deemed "high risk" by the city's Department of Traffic and Engineering in the coming months, but instead of receiving 68.5 percent of revenues, the company will only be taking 38 percent on the existing cameras, and 35 percent on the new ones, leaving the rest for city coffers.
"This is an extremely good contract for the city," asserted Speaks in a phone interview, adding that it was the most favorable comparable contract in the state.
Buy the ticket, take the ride
The ticket itself is interesting, as it is considered a civil infraction, not criminal. This means that violators are not assessed points on their license, and the incident is not reported to the insurance companies.
"All in all, it carries the weight of a parking ticket," said Zacher.
But, because it is a civil offense, violators are presumed guilty until proven innocent, which means that the full total of the fine is required as a bond before a hearing will be scheduled. Recipients may claim someone else was driving their vehicle when the infraction was incurred. If that person accepts responsibility, the city is happy to accept the guilty party's money instead.
Non-payment of the citations are remanded to collections agencies, and do not result in bench warrants. According to a 2008 Department of Public Safety report, nearly 20 percent of the citations issued wound up in collections.
Effectiveness
"We're very proud of the program, and excited at the chance to get it out in the public eye," said Speaks. According to information included in the 2008 report, the program's efficacy can be judged in two ways: by a decrease in accidents at the targeted intersections, and oddly, based on decreases in citations issued.
Crash data compiled in the report suggests collisions caused by running the red light have been reduced nearly 77 percent at the photo-enforced intersections over the life of the program.
When a camera is first installed, there tends to be a sharp spike in the number of citations issued, but that number drops radically within just a few months. A prime example is the intersection of Henderson and Gettysburg Roads, where citations decreased from 621 in the first 30 days of 2006 activation, down to just 59 in the last 30 days of 2008. The overall reduction citywide was around 60 percent.
So, contrary to the belief that the program is merely a cash cow for the city, the less revenue the cameras are generating, the more effective they are judged to be.
Caught red-handed
Hamilton County's Senator Bill Seitz thinks that the Columbus ordinance governing red light camera enforcement is too broad, and said he feels he was misled about the purpose of the program, which came to his attention when he received a citation in the mail.
"I think it's a seriously flawed process," he said. "It was sold to us as preventing the running of red lights, as in going through the intersection. It was not posited as a remedy for rolling turns on red."
Seitz, who received the ticket last year for running a red light in precisely that manner, said the cameras were not suited to determine whether a sufficient stop had been made before executing a permissible turn. He also questions the veracity of the information on the video.
"How do you know the tape wasn't tampered with? It could be accelerated and decelerated to show something that didn't take place," he said, expressing equally low confidence in the police review of the video. "People are being cited by these cameras and by Officer Zacher, sitting on her posterior at police headquarters," he said. "She wasn't there."
Seitz said he doesn't believe that rolling right turns on red, known as "California rolls," pose a significant-enough safety threat to warrant ticketing for them at all, calling them "not that serious."
In fact, right turn on red was nearly unheard of before the energy crisis of the 1970s, when Congress insisted such turns be permitted to avoid wasteful idling at red lights. But according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there has since been an "increase [in] the frequency of right turning crashes at signalized intersections, especially involving pedestrians and cyclists," both of which may be easily overlooked by a motorist focused on finding a gap in traffic to the left.
Seitz pointed out that Cincinnati, where he is from, has banned outright the use of such cameras in their city. When asked whether a patrol officer would ticket for a rolling turn such as the one he was cited for, he replied, "Not in Cincinnati."
"That is incorrect information," responded Sgt. Joe Stevens, a traffic cop in Cincinnati. "The officer has to see a stop. It's discretionary, but enforceable," elaborated Sgt. Stevens.
Frustration is an understandable reaction to receiving a seemingly random fine in the mail. They just feel kind of insulting, not unlike watching a parking meter smokey lurking around your car, waiting as the time ticks down - or being cited by someone on a Segway ... it just pisses you off. But the next time you or someone you know isn't run over by a commuter anxious to get to work, or some hyper-caffeinated mini-van racer with a lead foot and a latte shoved in her face, you might silently thank the boxy white evil eyes silently patrolling our intersections.
Originally Published: July 1, 2010
