Cameras yield 4,000 red-light citations Posted On: Tuesday, Jun. 17 2008 11:54 PM

By Justin Cox
Killeen Daily Herald

If you received a letter warning that you ran a red light in Killeen in the past month, you are not alone.

According to the Killeen Police Department, more than 8,000 warnings have been issued to drivers caught running red lights at five city intersections where cameras have been installed.

The system issued warnings from April 28 until May 29. But on May 30, at one minute past midnight, police began issuing tickets. In the 13 days since that date, about 4,000 tickets have been issued. That’s nearly 300 per day. And at $75 for the first offense, people could begin noticing.

Killeen police Capt. Lee Caufield said the numbers for the first month are as much as three times higher than he expected.
And these aren’t close calls, either, said Caufield, pulling up some random samples of violations on the police department’s computer system.

“We’re sending violations that clearly meet the violation of an ordinance,” he said.

He clicked on two at random and demonstrated that there is no disputing these cases. One was a red-light right turn involving an individual slowing down seemingly only to watch for traffic, then proceeding on through. The other was a violator who ran a red-light, passing the marking line 1.48 seconds after the light had turned red. That 1.48 seconds, at 35 or 40 mph, represented enough space so that the car didn’t even enter the picture viewed by the camera until after the red light had clicked over.

Caufield said nearly all the violations he’s seen are that obvious. So far, the right turn at Lowes Boulevard and Trimmier Road has seen the highest number of violations.

“The company that we contract with said we are their number one provider,” Caufield said. “That tells us how dangerous the intersections are. It tells us how egregious the violations are.”

Police Chief Dennis Baldwin said the numbers are a bit high because of the demographics of Killeen. He said Killeen has a wide variety of people from across the country, and the world for that matter, as well as a younger-than-average population. Those factors lead to a greater percentage of less-experienced drivers on the road, and drivers who are on unfamiliar terrain.

The company the city uses is called Redflex Traffic Systems. It receives all the violation data from its base in Arizona.

Caufield said that a ticket is considered a civil offense, similar to a code enforcement violation, and is not a moving violation, which can show up on a driving record, and affect insurance.

Caufield said there are two levels of redundancy built into the system to eliminate, or at least reduce, false or disputable violations. When Redflex receives the initial data, it checks and verifies its authenticity. If something is wrong with the camera, the process ends there.

Redflex also checks the license plate number and vehicle registration, and sends the corresponding information, along with the video, to the Killeen Police Department.

From that point, one of five officers reviews the material. If the car is stolen, doesn’t match the registration information or there is no address, the violation is pulled. Then it’s either eliminated or sent back to the system to correct any wrong data.

When a violation is sent to an individual, it comes with a corresponding number and instructions on how to view the video of the violation online.

Currently, Caufield said the system’s video information is used only to verify red light violations. The U.S. Senate is reviewing the policy of subpoenaing the videos for use as a tracking tool for law enforcement in certain situations.

The more violations the cameras pick up, the more money the city pulls in. Caufield said the system will eventually become self-sustaining, especially since all equipment costs are born by Redflex.

Caufield said about three to four man-hours are used daily to view the videos.

“This program has the ability to fund itself,” Caufield said. “I can pay an officer overtime to process through these videos, and that overtime can be reimbursed through funds received from the system.”

The first 90 violations one camera picks up in a month will net the city $27. The next 90 will net $37 per the ticket. After 180 violations at one intersection, the city will pull in $47 per violation until the end of the month. Caufield said the current numbers are a max, and he believes the system will eventually condition drivers to observe traffic laws on a more consistent basis.

Contact Justin Cox at jcox@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7568.