Red Light Camera News San Bernardino, California Dumps Red Light Cameras
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3427.asp
San Bernardino, California Dumps Red Light Cameras
San Bernardino decides it is worth spending $110,000 to get out of its red light camera contract.
The city council in San Bernardino, California voted 5 to 0 last week to pull the plug on its red light camera program. The action follows the lead of a growing number of jurisdictions in the Golden State that have grown disillusioned with automated ticketing machines. Most recently, Rocklin's cameras were shut off last Tuesday http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3422.asp. San Bernardino officials argued it would be worth paying the private contractor American Traffic Solutions (ATS) about $110,000 to get out of the contract before its 2014 expiration date.
"The provisions of the agreement [with ATS] allow the early termination of the contract with proper notice and each of the locations has a required payment of costs," Police Chief Keith L. Kilmer wrote in a memo to the city council. "The payout estimates for early termination have been computed by the city attorney's office after a comprehensive analysis of the contract."
San Bernardino first installed cameras at four intersections in 2005, sparking a number of controversies in its history. In 2008, the city was caught with illegally short yellow times that maximized the number of citations generated http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/26/2606.asp. Fixing the signal timing dropped the system's profitability. In 2009, the city dropped a "cost neutrality" clause from its contract after an Orange County court ruled that the provision violated state law (view ruling http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/26/2624.asp). This change left the city open to losing, instead of making, money on the red light camera program. The final blow came in December 2010 when a San Bernardino County court ruled that photo ticket evidence was inadmissible hearsay (view ruling http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3411.asp).
Dozens of cities have ended photo enforcement. These include Loma Linda and Whittier http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/33/3345.asp, Moreno Valley http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/30/3034.asp, Rocklin http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3422.asp, San Carlos http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/31/3110.asp, Union City, Yucaipa and Costa Mesa http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/32/3216.asp. In November 2010, 73 percent of Anaheim http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/33/3311.asp residents voted to ban cameras. Cupertino, Compton, El Monte http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/25/2574.asp, Fairfield, Fresno, Fullerton, Indian Wells, Irvine, Maywood http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/28/2830.asp, Montclair, Paramount, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Roseville http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/20/2000.asp, San Jose (photo radar) http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/25/2559.asp, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Maria, Santa Rosa , and Upland have rejected their automated ticketing programs. http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/27/2707.asp
San Bernardino's cameras will stop issuing tickets on June 1.
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