As Ohio And Other States Seek Ban

by Glen Richardson

Various members of the Denver City Council are reportedly pressuring the police to expand the city’s photo radar camera operation in light of the city raking in over $34 million in less than five years from citizens. The city has red light cameras at four intersections and five roaming vans to ticket speeders.

The push is being made notwithstanding various states are considering banning their use including Ohio which would require officers to witness any violation first-hand. The bill passed the Ohio House 58-31 and is expected to pass the Senate and be signed by Governor John Kasich. A similar statewide ban was passed by the Colorado State Senate last year only to die in the State House due to pressure from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Governor John Hickenlooper, a former mayor of Denver. The State of Missouri may put a ban to a statewide vote pursuant to bill introduced to the Missouri General Assembly.

At the same time the so-called “bagman” for red light camera company Redflex Traffic Systems, pleaded guilty to bribing a city worker to rig a $124 million contract in return for kickbacks. It is expected he will testify against Redflex CEO Karen Finlay on bribery charges. Redflex operated in Denver and other cities in Colorado in the past and the possibility of bribery charges being brought in Colorado is still purportedly a possibility.

Changing The Rules

The rise in revenues was in part generated when the red light camera, Xerox State and Local Solutions, was allowed to redefine what was running a red light from actually entering the intersection to touching any part of the preceding white crosswalk. Denver remains the only jurisdiction in Colorado that defines running a red light as just touching a white crosswalk. In Florida and other jurisdictions red light companies discovered that by shortening yellow lights by small amounts they could dramatically increase revenues although it also dramatically increased accidents.

Denver never adopted this technique due to the fact that the shortened yellow light gambit became a national scandal in places it was secretly implemented. The Denver Police Department claimed the four locations where red light cameras were installed, cut down accidents by 65 percent. But ABC Channel 7 News discovered the real reasons accidents were down is that at the same time, they increased yellow lights. In four other intersections in which longer yellow lights were also implemented, but no red light cameras installed, accidents were down 57 percent.

Denver also has five photo radar vans that bring in the majority of funds for the city. In theory the vans can be moved anywhere in the city, but are not. One van is almost incessantly parked on Speer Boulevard/1st Avenue across from the Denver Country Club. The reason is readily apparent — the six lane road does not appear to be a road where the speed limit would logically reduce from the standard 35 mph to 30 mph. Motorists often travel at what they believe is a reasonable 40 mph and get regularly ticketed providing literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues to the city. It has been noted that if the city had one of its photometric speed display trailers, which informs the motorist how fast he or she is traveling above the posted limit, it would be much more effective, but would provide no money to the city coffers.

Chief Of Police White

Destroys Personal Credibility

City Auditor Dennis Gallagher’s office reviewed the city’s photo radar in 2011 and found that it had done little to clearly show any purpose other than bringing in revenues. The report declared, “Unfortunately, DPD [Denver Police Department] has not demonstrated that the photo radar program has a positive impact on public safety. Because these programs were sold as public safety enhancements, but are widely viewed as a cash grab, it undermines public trust to maintain photo enforcement programs that are profitable, but whose safety impact has not been conclusively shown. If this situation persists, then the photo enforcement programs should be shut down.”

In response DPD refused to provide any studies and simply claimed no study could be conducted that would satisfy the auditor’s concerns.

Notwithstanding Chief White’s claim, the Chicago Tribune on December 19 in a front page story reported that a scientific study was in fact just performed on the country’s largest red light camera program in Chicago. It found, despite Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s claims to the contrary, red light cameras did not reduce injury-related crashes overall, but simply resulted in more rear-end accidents, while reducing so-called “T-bone” crashes.

As the photo radar enforcement program is highly unpopular among some voters, elected officials in Denver have generally refused to go on camera to try to justify its retention. The task has been delegated to Chief of Police Robert White who is appointed by the mayor. He has gone on Channel 7 and other stations and claimed the sole and only purpose of the program is “public safety.” Since such an assertion appears on its face wholly or at least partially untrue, he has lost credibility with some citizens at a time when police are under fire across the country.

“White is clearly lying. We know that at least part of the rationale is money and for him to claim otherwise is pathetic,” stated Denver resident Trish Abbott. She also noted, “White goes on Channel 7 and gives a bald lie right to the camera. In an age of ‘you can keep your doctor, if you like your doctor’ and the ‘United States doesn’t torture’ we are sick and tired of lying politicians and bureaucrats. At a time when the police department badly needs to build public trust, he throws it all away for nothing to provide cover for Hancock and members of the City Council.”

Citizen Revolt

Denver citizens are increasingly refusing to pay the photo radar enforcement tickets they receive in the mail as only 65 percent of the tickets are now paid. Under the applicable statute, Denver tickets must be sent by certified mail or personally served within 90 days of issuance and if not the ticket must be expunged. The Gallagher report suggested the law be changed, but to date it has not been.

City Council Extends

On December 15 the Denver City Council approved by a vote of 12 to 1 the extension of the existing contract, in theory, to allow competitive bidding for an expanded program with more red light cameras and more photo radar vans. The only dissenting vote was that of Jeanne Faatz who pointed out the absurdity of the crosswalk violation and the lack of any conclusive evidence on public safety. “Some people love them, I don’t,” City Councilwoman Faatz said. “…my feeling is that issuing tickets for people who cross the white line is knit picking. It’s more of a revenue raiser than a safety measure.” On December 16, City Auditor Gallagher sent out a letter in which he noted at the public hearing that “I never heard any talk about proving that these two programs actually improve public safety.”

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