3.19.20
City plan: double red-light cameras

But new, existing devices won’t be used on speeders
By: Robert Vitale - www.Dispatch.com
Red-light cameras would go up at twice as many Columbus intersections and two portable camera units would be used to catch school-zone speeders under a plan headed to the City Council.

But the plan does not call for modifying the 20 current red-light cameras to catch motorists who drive too fast, Department of Public Safety officials said yesterday. They don't plan to add that capability to the 20 red-light cameras that would be added under the proposal, either.

Doing that, they fear, would risk a voter revolt similar to those that unplugged cameras last fall in Chillicothe and Heath.

"It's a pragmatic recommendation on our part," Deputy Public Safety Director George Speaks said. A department report accompanying the recommendation to the City Council warned that using red-light cameras to catch speeders "may possibly jeopardize the continuation of our current program, which has changed driving behavior."

Crashes caused by drivers running red lights have declined 76 percent at intersections with cameras since the first cameras were installed in Columbus in 2006. The 18 intersections where 20 cameras are located averaged a combined 68 yearly crashes before and just 16 after, according to city figures.

Rear-end crashes, sometimes involving drivers slamming the brakes at changing lights, have fallen as well, by 31 percent.

"That's a significant amount of carnage we've been able to avoid," said Columbus Police Cmdr. Richard Bash, who oversees the division's traffic unit.

The cameras also have been a moneymaker for city government. Expanding the program would help counteract declines in both the number of $95 tickets issued and the percentage of people paying up.

Through 2009, Columbus has collected $2.1 million from red-light cameras.

The city would get a bigger share of red-light ticket money under the expansion plan, which would extend a contract with Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems to 2013.

The city keeps 31.5 percent of each ticket now, and Redflex gets 68.5 percent.

Under the new terms, Columbus would keep 62 percent of the money from tickets issued by existing cameras and 55 percent from new cameras.

But the expansion is not about the money, officials insist.

"We've never viewed it as a moneymaker," said Councilman Andrew J. Ginther, chairman of both the finance and safety committees. "The policies and procedures we've put in place, I think, reinforce that."

New cameras would go at intersections with high numbers of crashes in recent years, Speaks said. The specific locations have not been identified.

Among those ranked by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission as the city's most dangerous from 2005 to '07 are Hamilton Road and Livingston Avenue; Hamilton and Refugee roads; Cleveland Avenue and Morse Road; and Morse and Sunbury roads.

Ronnie Kidd, who led the ballot effort to shut down red-light and speeding cameras in Heath, 30 miles east of Columbus, said he thinks city officials might be mistaken about avoiding a public backlash.

"This might be enough" to spark a referendum , he said. "If people in Columbus want help, I assure you they'd get help."

Ginther will host a hearing Monday on the expansion of red-light cameras in Columbus. It will start at 5 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall.

A plan will go before the full council next month, he said. The first new cameras would be installed within months if council members approve.

The proposal includes legislation to authorize the portable speed-monitoring cameras.

The safety department wants to lease two vehicles from Redflex that can scan license plates and calculate the speed of passing motorists. They would be parked in school zones much of the year, but they also could be used around parks, playgrounds and pools during the summer.

Just as Columbus police officers review red-light footage and make the final call on citations, Bash said, officers would be inside the sport-utility vehicles to decide whether tickets would be mailed to speeders.

He said the license-plates scans also can be used to search police data and alert officers if the owner of a vehicle is a wanted criminal suspect or a registered sex offender who shouldn't be in a school zone.

The technology also could be used during Amber Alerts, issued when a child is missing.

The SUVs would be clearly marked as Columbus police vehicles, officials said, and the city would work with school districts to determine a rotation for the portable cameras among the 200 schools within Columbus city limits.

"It's like having 40 more police officers out there," Bash said.

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