L.A. to Catch Traffic-Light Violators With Cameras at 16 Intersections

The City Council agreed Friday to begin installing cameras at Los Angeles intersections that automatically photograph and cite motorists who run red lights.

Citing an alarming number of deadly accidents, the council voted 10 to 2 to hire Lockheed Martin IMS to install cameras at 16 intersections as part of a three-year test program.

The LAPD has not yet selected the locations, though officials have identified intersections with the worst traffic and most accidents. City engineers have not yet decided which ones are best suited for the cameras, and officials did not identify all 35 corners under study as possible sites.

However, among locations being studied, they said, are the intersections of Figueroa Street and Imperial Highway in South-Central Los Angeles, Lorena Street and Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, La Brea Avenue and Rodeo Road in the Crenshaw district, and La Brea and 6th Street in Hancock Park.

San Fernando Valley locations under consideration include Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards in North Hollywood, and Balboa and Roscoe boulevards in North Hills.

Councilwoman Laura Chick said similar systems are in operation in dozens of cities around the world, including Beverly Hills and Oxnard. In many of those cities, red light violations at targeted intersections have reportedly declined as much as 50%.

“The results everywhere it is used are very dramatic,” Chick said. “Auto collisions are radically reduced. Lives are saved.”

Nationwide, running red lights causes 260,000 crashes each year and kills 750 people, Chick said.

Although officials do not have statistics on such accidents in Los Angeles, they said there were 181 fatal traffic accidents in Los Angeles last year. They added that nationwide about 22% of fatal accidents happen in intersections.

“It’s one of our major causes of accidents where people are killed or seriously injured,” said Lt. Ron Tingle of the San Fernando Valley Traffic Bureau.

The proposal approved Friday would install cameras by July 1 at one intersection in each of the city’s four geographic police bureaus and then three more in each bureau by the end of the year.

Housed in a box on a pole overlooking the intersection, the camera would be automatically triggered when a vehicle entered an intersection against a red light. Motorists who entered an intersection to make a turn when the light was green or yellow, but who got stuck in the intersection when the light turned red, would not trigger the camera.

The resulting photo would show the vehicle’s license plate and the driver’s face.

The LAPD would then submit the license plate number to the state Department of Motor Vehicles to identify the vehicle owner, who would be sent a citation carrying a fine of $271. Lockheed Martin IMS would get a fee of $60 for every paid citation, according to Glen Ogura of the city Transportation Department.

Based on the experience of similar systems in Beverly Hills, city officials expect to get photographs of about 800 scofflaws per month from each camera, of which only 40% will result in citations, Ogura said. Some photos will not result in citations because the license plate or the driver’s face will not be clearly visible.

The city estimates that it will net about $3.5 million in the program’s first year.

Councilwoman Rita Walters voted against the program on privacy grounds. “I guess I’m old-fashioned in thinking that there is still a presumption of privacy in one’s car,” she said. “I just really do not like the Big Brother overtones that this has.”

Walters wondered whether similar cameras might be put up in the future to record other actions of people. Colleagues voiced similar concerns about widespread government surveillance but said they feel that photographing a motorist’s face is not an invasion of privacy.