Drivers to Face the Camera at Red Lights in Pasadena

Just seven months after the city began using a controversial photo radar to catch speeding motorists, tests are about to begin on a similar surveillance device to catch red-light violators.

The photo radar, which brought howls of protest against “Big Brother” when it was introduced last June, has already photographed thousands of speeding motorists, who received tickets in the mail.

Now the city hopes that a photographic red-light surveillance device called the Multafot will be just as effective.

The Multafot is a combination camera and microcomputer that automatically detects vehicles that enter an intersection after the light has turned red.

The camera snaps a photo of the vehicle, its license plate number and the driver’s face. Information from the photo is later printed out to produce a ticket that is mailed to the registered owner of the car.

One-Month Trials

On Monday, Pasadena will install one of the units at the intersection of Fair Oaks Avenue and Union Street to begin a one-month trial. Then it will be moved to California Boulevard and Hill Avenue for another month.

No tickets will be issued during the test period, but Mayor William Thomson said that if the device works as advertised, it could be in operation by the end of the year.

Pasadena is the first city in the state and only the second in the United States to test the device. New York City tested the machine last year and is preparing to install 25 units.

The Multafot, like the photo radar, has been used in Europe, Asia and South America for years, said Robert P. Umbdenstock, whose San Anselmo company distributes the machine in this country.

The device, which costs between $40,000 and $45,000, is usually mounted on a pole about 12 feet above the road and 100 feet away from the intersection.

A set of magnetic sensors is embedded in the road to detect when a car has entered the intersection.

Machine Is Activated

When the signal light turns red, the machine is activated and a photo is taken of any car in the intersection.

The device is programmed to screen out cars that are legally turning right or left on a red light.

Thomson said he hopes that the machine will generate less controversy than the photo radar, which many have attacked as unfair, un-American and just plain sneaky.

Motorists have complained that the ticket is sent to the registered owner of the car even though that person may not have been driving at the time of the violation. The city has not been prosecuting those cases.

In several court trials involving photo radar tickets, motorists have contested the accuracy of the unit’s radar and the legality of ticketing drivers without stopping them.

In the vast majority of cases, the motorists have lost.

Successful Challenge

But one man, Joseph L. Logsdon of Arcadia, successfully fought his ticket last year in a case that led to the dismissal of more than 900 other tickets.

Logsdon’s attorney, Thomas D. Hogue, argued that the police vehicle containing the photo radar unit was painted the wrong color.

State law requires police vehicles be painted either all white or white with a sharply contrasting color. The Pasadena Police Department painted its radar vehicle white and gold, a color scheme not used on any of its other vehicles.

A Municipal Court judge agreed with Hogue’s argument and dismissed the case. The city prosecutor’s office later agreed to dismiss all photo radar cases in which the white-and-gold car was used.

The photo radar car has since been repainted all white.

Thomson said drivers will be far less contentious about red-light surveillance because, while everyone speeds once in awhile, few drivers condone running a red light.

“No one argues about that,” he said. “If you run a red light, you’re endangering your life and others. I don’t expect much controversy.”

So far, Thomson has at least one supporter.

Logsdon, who has remained intensely opposed to the photo radar, said using the Multafot to catch red-light violators is a good idea.

“I almost got killed the other day in an intersection,” Logsdon said. “You’re a damn fool if you run a red light.”