City council investigates red light and speed photo enforcement cameras

“Speed is obviously a big issue for you,” Bill Kroske of American Traffic Solutions told Maricopa City Council members last week, recounting his trip to Maricopa on SR 347.

Kroske’s Scottsdale-based firm is the photo safety enforcement vendor for cities like Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, Avondale, Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Houston.

American Traffic Solutions (ATS) is one of several vendors providing these types of services. The Public Safety Advisory Committee asked Police Chief Patrick Melvin to research some of those companies for potential photo enforcement.

“Red light programs are making cities safer places to drive,” noted Kroske, adding that 40 percent of all crashes are intersection related, and that there are 6.4 million crashes each year.

Bill Kroske of American Traffic Solutions presented his company’s red light and speed photo enforcement program to city council members last week. The company’s cameras beat every type of photo avoidance drivers could come up with in a March “Myth-Busters” segment on the Discovery channel.

The company’s red light program is a “system that is hardly noticeable,” according to Kroske. It consists of one small strobe plus a controller, which can shoot over the top of long trucks and be moved 60-90 feet back from an intersection.

Cameras, recording 24 hours days, shoot six images in 1.5 seconds and provide location, date, time and direction. Arizona is one of four states requiring a photo of the driver of the vehicle.

Speed enforcement is the other half of the program. Top radar equipment can pick out cars four lanes across, using mobile speed vans or stationary equipment. Speed cameras can also be hooked up to red light cameras.

ATS provides initial installation costs and does mailings for police-approved citations. Revenue based on $100 per citation and eight citations per day with a 20 percent loss, minus the camera cost, would still be about $13,805 per month to the city.

Vice-Mayor Brent Murphree, speaking in response to potential revenue, said, “Public safety primarily wanted it to be a deterrent, based on slowing down traffic and getting red light runners stopped.”

According to Kroske, unless there is a threshold of at least 10 red light violations per day, no camera would be installed. Speed enforcement radar needs would be compared to the number of violations an unmarked vehicle would write up in one hour.

“I think this is fantastic,” said Councilman Will Dunn. “I hope we don’t sit on this for 7 months, 8 months.”

Photo by Aaron Thacker