Cameras Proposed for Use at Traffic Lights

To crack down on motorists who run red lights, Oxnard’s Police Department may soon install cameras at intersections to take snapshots of license plates and drivers’ faces.

If these high-tech traffic cops come to town, drivers who thought they had broken the law without getting caught may still end up with $104 tickets in their mailboxes. The City Council is expected to consider the proposal at its meeting Tuesday.

Ken Klopman, an Oxnard traffic officer, said the department might eventually install sensors and cameras at up to 20 of Oxnard’s 125 intersections.

The underground sensors would trigger the camera whenever a car crossed after a light had turned red.

Klopman said the system would record the license number and other information, including the amount of time the light had been red when the car entered the intersection.

The idea is to reduce the number of crashes caused by drivers running red lights, Klopman said.

Oxnard logged 670 such accidents between January 1992 and June 1995, he said, adding that the rate of injury and fatality in these crashes was twice the rate in accidents caused by speeding cars in general.

“It is obviously impossible to put an officer at every intersection,” Klopman said.

“To put a camera increases the probability of being caught at those intersections to 100%. The whole benefit is not to write tickets or generate revenue, but is the deterrent effect it has.”

Klopman said the San Diego company that manufactures the systems has agreed to install the $50,000 units in exchange for most of the revenue the city would receive from the tickets.

Klopman said Oxnard would be the first city in the county to install such a system if the City Council approves the proposal.