Bill Allowing Cameras for Red Light Violations OKd

Weighing fears of Big Brother against claims of safer streets, the Assembly on Monday approved and sent to Gov. Pete Wilson a bill allowing cameras to catch drivers who run red lights.

The legislation would make permanent the authority of police, with the approval of local governments, to use the film evidence to nail violators, who would face first-offense fines of $270. The cameras are in experimental use in six California cities, with 15 others lined up to follow suit.

A Wilson spokesman said the governor has not reviewed the legislation by state Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), but noted that the governor signed the bill authorizing the pilot program three years ago and “is inclined to support measures that provide public safety.”

Without enactment of Kopp’s legislation, cities would have had to dismantle the cameras at busy intersections this year. State analysts said the cameras in the past year have accounted for almost 16,000 citations.

Red light runners colliding with other vehicles are “an epidemic problem . . . that cost 350 lives last year and 30,000 serious injuries” in California, said Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco).

The devices “work and they save lives,” said Shelley, who noted that San Francisco “has seen a 42% reduction” in red light running where the cameras operate at four busy intersections.

“It’s appropriate to have cameras in banks, it’s appropriate to have cameras in a 7-Eleven, but it’s not appropriate to have them at intersections?” Shelley asked.

The cameras automatically snap a picture of a car if it enters an intersection against the light and is traveling at least 15 mph. The film shows the front of the car, the license plate number and the driver’s face.

A citation is sent to the registered owner by mail and becomes enforceable only if the picture shows that the driver was the registered owner.

Assemblyman Nao Takasugi of Oxnard, one of seven Republicans who joined Democrats in approving the Kopp bill by a 49-26 vote, said the cameras have contributed to a drop in red light running in his area.

But the mostly GOP opposition stuck to its claim--as it did when the bill went down to defeat in the Assembly three weeks ago--that the cameras represented unconstitutional intrusion into citizens’ lives.

The bill’s approval will do little more than “allow reverse ATM machines on every street corner”--taking instead of giving money--said Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge).

“Booby-trapped intersections” will result in “people who never got a ticket going to the mailbox and finding a citation [for a violation] they can’t even remember,” he said.

Others who have charged that street corner surveillance cameras smacked of Big Brother and Nazi Germany remained unswayed Monday.

“It’s an erosion of rights. How much information should the all-knowing government have on you?” asked Assemblyman George House (R-Hughson).

The opposition was not enough to stop a collective change of heart by the Assembly, going from defeat of the Kopp bill three weeks ago to approval by a safe margin Monday.

Among those who switched their vote to “aye” Monday, after voting “no” or not voting during the earlier Assembly roll call on April 23, was Assemblyman Mike Machado, a Democrat from a conservative Central Valley farm area.

“My major concern earlier was that [the bill] was doing something to preclude local control,” that perhaps state law could insist that the cameras be used, Machado said.

Assured Monday that use of the devices was entirely up to local governments, and that there will be follow-up legislation to require public hearings locally before the cameras can be used, Machado said he was able to switch and vote with most other Democrats in favor of the measure.

Another Democrat who switched to “aye,” Assemblyman Scott Wildman of Los Angeles, said he was concerned earlier about “where law enforcement stood” on the camera bill. He voted for the bill when he learned that police “were OK with it” in his district, he said.

In Los Angeles, said the city’s Sacramento lobbyist, Norman Boyer, officials plan to install red light enforcement cameras at eight intersections.

The LAPD, Boyer said, issued 31,000 red light running tickets in 1996, 4,300 of them involving accidents.

Among other cities that have taken part in the three-year pilot program are Beverly Hills, El Cajon, Poway and Oxnard.

In Beverly Hills, at the intersection of Wilshire and La Cienega boulevards where cameras are in place, citations for running red lights have totaled more than 6,000 for a three-month period, said Police Officer Brad Cornelius.

As a result, he said, “we have seen a drastic reduction of accidents at that intersection.”