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Letter to the editor

Officials consider red light cameras

The police chief says the devices would free up resources.

By ROBBYN MITCHELL, Times Staff Writer
Published February 8, 2008

TEMPLE TERRACE 

A vendor sought Tuesday night to persuade the Temple Terrace City Council to become the 11th city in Florida to adopt the red light camera program.

Greg Parks of American Traffic Solutions studied the busiest intersections of Temple Terrace for an eight-hour stretch and observed 65 cars running the red light at 56th Street and Fowler Avenue.

"Before we installed cameras at corners in Philadelphia, the worst intersection had 39 cars run the light in a 24-hour period," Parks said. "So that speaks to how the situation is in Florida."

Police Chief Tony Velong said running red lights caused 22 traffic crashes in the city from October 2006 to October 2007.

"To properly monitor large intersections like 56th Street and Busch Boulevard, we need two spotter cars and four to six catch cars because of the difficulty one car would have in navigating through traffic to catch someone without endangering others," Velong said. "For us that is a whole shift of officers working one area."

He estimated that setting up an enforcement of that type one day a month would cost the city an additional $10,752 a year.

Parks said the camera system, which would be outsourced to his company, comes at no initial expense to the city. ATS makes its money from traffic citations.

"But we would most likely have to retain the services of a magistrate to hear the cases of people who would like to contest their citation," said Kim Leinbach, the city manager.

Other benefits to the camera system include a 30-day footage archive that police can use to help solve other crimes such as robberies and murders.

City Attorney Mark A. Connolly warned the council that the program is not without its drawbacks.

"There is currently a bill in the works for the state Legislature about whether it will be legal to issue a citation from the red light cameras," he said. "But until then I wanted to make you are aware that this project exists in one of those gray areas of the law."

Council members are scheduled to make a decision about whether they will go forward at the Feb. 19 meeting.

Tampa also is considering joining the 275 cities across the country who use ATS to help them police busy intersections.

Robbyn Mitchell can be reached at (813) 269-5313 or rmitchell@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 7, 2008, 07:47:06]