Cameras to Focus Soon on Red Light Runners

One flash and you suspect you’re in trouble.

Several weeks later a letter from the police department confirms it: You’ve been caught, and here’s the photographic proof.

Some Los Angeles drivers can expect that scenario later this month when cameras are placed at four high-traffic intersections. The goal: to reduce the number of drivers who go through red lights.

Law enforcement agencies say cameras are a useful weapon and have reduced red-light violations in cities such as Beverly Hills, Oxnard and San Francisco by at least 40%.

“I expect we will see similar numbers, but I would like to break all the records,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick. “Photo enforcement is another tool that has proven to be extremely effective in reducing accidents, and I have no doubt it will do the same here.”

After two years of negotiations, the city agreed on a contract with Lockheed Martin IMS, which operates 80% of the photo enforcement programs in the United States.

A single camera will be placed at an intersection in each of the city’s four police patrol bureaus. The locations are Sherman Way and Winnetka Avenue; Wilshire and Westwood boulevards; 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue; and Imperial Highway and Figueroa Street. An additional 12 intersections will get cameras by June, but authorities said those locations have not yet been determined.

“It’s been proven at nearly every location where a camera has been mounted that there is a dramatic decrease in accidents,” said Sgt. John Gambill, who heads the LAPD’s photo enforcement team. “This problem is second only to speeding. I think it’s a lot more serious than people realize.”

Red-light offenses caused more than 800 deaths and 200,000 injuries nationwide in 1999, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Over the past five years, there have been nearly 12,000 red-light accidents in Los Angeles, police said, resulting in 73 deaths.

More than half of Americans surveyed by the Federal Highway Administration admit to running red lights. And 96% of those polled worry they will get hit by someone driving through a red light.

Mounted on a pole and marked by a sign, a camera is triggered only when a motorist enters an intersection against a red light. Those who enter during a yellow light or exit on a red don’t activate the camera.

The cameras are programmed to shoot at least two pictures, which are analyzed by a Lockheed technician before being referred to police. No citation is mailed unless the pictures clearly show the driver’s face and front license plate. Between 30% and 40% of offenders escape citation because of unusable photos.

Drivers have been known to cover their faces while they zip through intersections. Others drive cars lacking front license plates. A front plate is required by state law, and police sometimes crack down on the infraction. In a campaign against plateless drivers last June in the San Fernando Valley, police issued nearly 600 warnings on Winnetka Avenue alone over a two-week period.

While cameras have been used for years in Australia, France and Britain, acceptance has been slower in the United States amid complaints that they invade privacy.

“Bit by bit, our civil liberties are being diminished,” said Michael Klein, an attorney who sits on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Southern California chapter. “It’s a gradual reduction of our own privacy. The camera plan makes no sense except it makes money for the city, and it’s cheaper than hiring more police officers.”

Currently, cameras are used in only 10 states.

The state with the worst record of fatal red-light collisions is Arizona, according to an insurance institute study, with Phoenix, Mesa and Tucson ranking among the four worst cities in the country. Los Angeles ranks 14th.

California is viewed as a leader in photo enforcement, with 10 of the nation’s 50 participating cities.

“We have just scratched the surface,” said Michael Flaherty, chief operating officer of municipal services for Lockheed Martin. “In other parts of the world, this technology is commonplace. It’s such a natural from a safety perspective.”

City officials are supportive. The cameras will cost the city virtually nothing because Lockheed will pay for installation and maintenance. The company will receive about one-third of each $271 ticket for a red-light offense, according to its contract. Its share of the ticket revenue may bring the city more than $5 million during the first year of operation, said the LAPD’s Gambill.

When cameras were installed at three intersections in Beverly Hills, Lockheed predicted a 40% drop in red-light violations in the first year, said Lt. Al Munoz-Flores of the Beverly Hills Police Department. In fact, the first-year drop was 51%. The Beverly Hills City Council has since approved five more cameras.

“We are very pleased with our results,” Munoz-Flores said. “I don’t see this program as one of enforcement but rather one of education. When people see these cameras, they generally aren’t going to push the envelope.”

The first city in Southern California to adopt the photo enforcement program was Oxnard. Cameras were posted at 11 intersections, and there was a 22% reduction in red-light accidents in the first year, officials said.

Motorists have been in front of the lens for two years in San Diego, where local television and radio talk show hosts have taken the project to task, claiming that the cameras are intrusive and unreliable.

Citations have also been challenged in court. A San Diego judge threw out a red-light citation in April, noting that the speed evidence documented by the camera was inadmissible under the state’s speed-trap law. City attorneys argued that the law didn’t apply because the ticket was issued for running a red light, not for speeding. The case was never appealed.

According to San Diego police, the cameras caught 3,500 motorists in red-light violations at one location near San Diego International Airport in June alone.

“For the most part, the people we hear from the most are the ones who complain,” said Sgt. Ernest Adams of the San Diego Police Department. “They get the most notoriety. They complain about their tickets, but the answer is simple. Stop at the light.”

Los Angeles police realize the debate over the cameras will intensify once they are installed. They will take some time to get used to, officials say, but in the long run will bring positive results.

“We are fully anticipating this program will be a success,” Chick said. “We’re already thinking about expanding the program, but first we have to get it up and running.”