Red-light cameras: City nears decision on surveillance program

Julie Ann Grimm | The New Mexican

8/3/2008 - 7/31/08

Rosemary Romero was racing. She had meetings on opposite sides of Albuquerque, and her foot got heavy on the gas pedal . She arrived at her destination on time and never saw the lights of a police car in her rearview mirror.

Yet, Romero still got busted for speeding.

A few weeks later, she received a notice in the mail explaining that her infraction had been captured by digital video cameras in the first New Mexico city to use them.

Now that she's a Santa Fe city councilor, Romero is among those backing a plan that calls for Santa Fe to join hundreds of other cities across the nation that monitor drivers via surveillance cameras.

"I got a $150 ticket for speeding, and it was clearly me. It was a picture of my car. It was clearly me in my car, and I was embarrassed," Romero said. "I try really hard now not to speed. It got my attention, and I think it really made me behave differently."

A proposal making its way to the Santa Fe City Council calls for the installation of cameras at four city intersections that have the highest crash rates — all of them on Cerrillos Road. Another camera system would be mounted in a car for speed enforcement. Fines would range from $66 to $456.

The enforcement effort presumably would occur through a contract with an Arizona company that specializes in the technology and has been courting the city. Redflex Traffic Systems works with police to issue citations when cameras capture footage of drivers running red lights or speeding.

The company is already on a state procurement contract, which means Santa Fe can piggyback its own contract without going through a formal request for proposals from other vendors.

The final decision is up to the city governing body, and ordinance sponsor Councilor Ron Trujillo calls it a logical next step.

Trujillo first introduced his proposal to install traffic cameras when he ran for office in 2006. He stalled that effort, however, when controversy arose in Albuquerque over the program that started there two years earlier. In February, Trujillo brought the plan back to the City Council.

"I am not saying it's a vendetta, but I have almost been hit many times," the councilor said Friday. "I have almost seen my wife get hit. There is a problem in Santa Fe. At any intersection in this community, any day, you will see somebody run a red light."

Although he touts the public-safety aspects of the idea, it's no secret that he and other supporters also aim to boost the Police Department budget with the program. A staff increase for the department was approved this year, and one idea for raising revenue to sustain the expansion is the proposed camera program.

A fiscal impact report that accompanies the proposal suggests the program could earn $1.1 million for the city during a full year of operation.

The infusion of cash might not last long, however. The New Mexico Legislature passed a law last year that takes a major bite out of Albuquerque's revenues from the camera enforcement program there, which includes 20 intersections and four mobile units. The statue does not apply to Santa Fe — only cities with a population of 200,000 or more. But even Trujillo says he worries about lawmakers coming after Santa Fe's revenues if it starts the program.

Redflex is the largest of a handful of companies operating such programs. The company and the 200 cities it serves in 20 states have volumes of data about how the system has changed driver behavior since it was first introduced in Paradise Valley, Ariz., in the 1980s.

Although in some cases cities report an increase in rear-end collisions caused by sudden stops coupled with tailgating, crash rates inside dangerous intersections drop as drivers attempt to avoid citations by following the rules.

"We are very, very confident in the case for the safety benefits of what we do. It comes under examination all over the country all the time and passes the examination over and over," said James Heiler, the company's director of government affairs.

Some critics charge that officials can try to entrap drivers by shortening the length of time in which a traffic signal changes from yellow to red.

"We have no control over the timing of the lights. That is the single biggest myth that I face," salesman Darren Kolack told city councilors at a recent meeting.

Cameras don't capture footage unless a light is already red, he said. A sensor about 22 feet from a traffic light detects whether a car is going too fast to stop at a red light. If so, three 12-megapixel cameras film the next 12 seconds. The company sends that footage to police, who confirm or deny a violation occurred. Under most contracts, the company then sends out citations and collects fines, keeping up to a third of the profits.

If the recipient of a citation so desires, the proposed Santa Fe ordinance would allow him or her a hearing to contest the citation. The recipient also can "nominate" another person as the actual driver. If the owner of the car who receives a ticket in the mail was not driving during the infraction, he or she can provide information about the actual driver and, if that person agrees, transfer the ticket.

Albuquerque issues about 8,000 citations per month. According to a 2008 report, about 30 percent of the detected violations in the city did not result in citations because of technical reasons, weather and other factors, including that the license plate was obstructed by another vehicle or by sun glare. Some of the detected violations were also right turns, which are cited only at the discretion of police.

As in Albuquerque, cameras in Santa Fe would be trained on the side and back of vehicles as they approach and travel through intersections. Zoomed-in images of license plates combined with sensitive time and speed calculations provide evidence of a violation.

Although technology exists to capture sharp images of drivers' faces, the cameras in Santa Fe wouldn't collect those images because state laws don't require it. Councilor Patti Bushee asked during a recent committee hearing whether the cameras also could be used to enforce a city rule that bans drivers from using hand-held cell phones.

Heiler said that goal would be far more complex than the services the company provides. "In order to capture a violation like a cell-phone violation, you would have to have an ongoing camera to catch that," he said, "and I don't even know how you would trigger it to record the violation."

However, the images captured on camera would no doubt have other uses for law enforcement, just as video footage from police cars or private businesses is used in criminal court cases, Deputy Police Chief Benjie Montaño said.

Montaño cited an April hit-and-run accident that seriously injured a motorcyclist at Cerrillos Road near Zafarano Drive.

"We have had a hard time finding the driver," Montaño said. "That would have been a perfect example of how we could have used this. That would have been helpful."

Not everyone is a fan of such cameras.

Two states have laws that prohibit traffic cameras, largely because of involvement from a lobby organization called the National Motorists Association, which argues "red light violations are primarily the result of poorly designed, poorly maintained, or improperly operated traffic lights."

The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also has been skeptical. Director Peter Simonson said Albuquerque changed some provisions of its rules after the ACLU tried to litigate arguments about an absence of due process.

Simonson said he still has concerns about the concept.

"More than anything, we have gotten complaints from people who generally are frustrated by a system that automatically penalizes them without consideration for the circumstances surrounding why they may have been in the intersection in the red," he said.

He suggests Santa Fe implement a pilot period for the proposal so officials can weigh public sentiment.

"A system like this generates a fair amount of ill will in the public," he said, "and that is well illustrated by the Albuquerque example."

Santa Fe's city Finance Committee, which plans to discuss the proposal at 5:15 p.m. meeting today at City Hall, is the last review body scheduled to hear it before it reaches the full City Council for a public hearing and final vote, possibly as early as Sept. 10.

The Business and Quality of Life Committee, Mayor's Youth Advisory Committee and Public Works Committee have all recommended approval.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.