Council OKs Plan to Install Cameras at 16 Intersections

Despite objections that the program is an intrusion by Big Brother, the City Council agreed Friday to begin installing cameras at Los Angeles intersections to automatically photograph and cite motorists who run red lights.

Citing an alarming number of deadly accidents, the council voted 10 to 2 to authorize a contract with Lockheed Martin IMS to install cameras at 16 city intersections--including four in the San Fernando Valley--as part of a three-year test program to see if the program saves lives.

Councilwoman Laura Chick said similar systems are in operation in dozens of cities around the world, including Beverly Hills and Oxnard, locally. In many cities where the system has been employed, red-light violations at targeted intersections have declined by as much as 50%.

“The results everywhere it is used are very dramatic,” Chick said. “Auto collisions are radically reduced. Lives are saved.”

Nationwide, each year, there are 260,000 crashes and 750 people killed by motorists running red lights, Chick said.

There were 181 fatal traffic accidents in Los Angeles last year, including 67 in the Valley, LAPD officials said, adding that about 22% of fatal accidents occur in intersections.

“It’s one of our major causes of accidents where people are killed or seriously injured,” said Lt. Ron Tingle of the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division.

Cameras are to be installed at one intersection in each of the city’s four geographic police patrol bureaus by July 1 and three more in each bureau by year-end.

Camera Overlooks Busy Intersection

The device, housed in a box on a pole overlooking the intersection, is automatically triggered when a vehicle enters an intersection against a red light. Cars that enter an intersection to make a turn when the light is green or yellow, but who get stuck in the intersection when the light turns red, would not trigger the camera.

The resulting photo shows the vehicle’s license plate and the driver’s face.

The LAPD then submits the license plate number to the state Department of Motor Vehicles to identify the vehicle owner, who is sent a citation carrying a fine of $271. Lockheed Martin IMS gets a fee of $60 for every paid citation, said Glen Ogura of the city Department of Transportation.

Based on experience with a similar system in Beverly Hills, city officials expect to get photographs of about 800 red-light runners per month from each camera, of which about 40% will result in citations, Ogura said. Some photos will not result in citations, because the license plate or driver’s face is not identifiable.

The city estimates it will net about $3.5 million in the program’s first year.

“It’s a tool that has been effectively utilized in other cities to deal with those scofflaws who are running red lights, “ said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. “They are more than just scofflaws, because running a red light is not just a violation of the law, but it is putting the driver in danger and it is putting the rest of the community at danger.”

Although agreeing that people who run red lights are a danger, Councilwoman Rita Walters voted against the program.

“I guess I’m old-fashioned in thinking that there is still a presumption of privacy in one’s car,” Walters said. “I just really do not like the Big Brother overtones that this has, the invasion of that privacy.”

Walters wondered whether similar cameras might be put up in the future to record other actions of people.

Other council members voiced similar concerns about widespread government surveillance but said photographing a violating motorist’s face is not an invasion of privacy.

Chick disputed that the cameras are an unreasonable intrusion.

“Frankly, it’s a bit of a myth that photo red-light systems are an impersonal Big Brother approach to traffic,” Chick said. “In fact, driving is not a right, it’s a privilege, and it’s done on the public right of way. These pictures are not taken until a car has entered the intersection after a light has turned red.”

The LAPD has not yet decided which 16 intersections will get cameras. The police have identified those with the most volume and most accidents, but city engineers are now determining which ones are best-suited for cameras.

City officials refused to release the complete list of 35 candidate intersections being studied, because some will be dropped.

Valley Trouble Spots Considered

In the Valley, one of the first cameras may be installed somewhere along Sherman Way, which is “the No. 1 traffic collision corridor in the Valley,” LAPD Sgt. John Gambill said.

Many accidents have occurred on Sherman Way, at its intersections with White Oak Avenue and Reseda and Sepulveda boulevards, he said.

Other Valley locations being considered are the intersections of Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards; Burbank and Reseda boulevards; and Balboa and Roscoe boulevards, Gambill said.

Also being studied are the intersections of Figueroa Street and Imperial Highway in South Central Los Angeles; Lorena Street and Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles; La Brea Avenue and Rodeo Road in the Mid City area; and La Brea Avenue and 6th Street, officials said.