houston: 20 new red light cams will catch you coming and going

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5091190.html

Aug. 29, 2007, 12:40AM
20 new red light cams will catch you coming and going
HPD quietly installs the devices, which begin operation on Friday

By MATT STILES
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
TOOLS
Email

Get section feed
Print

Subscribe NOW
Comments

Recommend
RESOURCES
Seeing more red

The city is adding 20 red-light cameras to intersections where cameras already are in use. The new cameras will monitor traffic from different directions than the ones already in place. The locations of the new cameras are:

Houston police quietly have moved to install new red-light cameras at 20 intersections already monitored by the system, allowing citations for motorists traveling in the opposite direction, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The 20 new cameras are expected to start working Friday. Motorists caught by the new cameras would be issued warnings during a month-long grace period ending in October, police said.

The move to add more cameras, which had not been publicly disclosed, appears to conflict with the terms of a contract the City Council approved in 2006 with American Traffic Solutions Inc., the private company that installs and monitors the cameras.

That agreement includes payment arrangements with the company for a total of 50 intersection "approaches," or cameras monitoring specific directions at a location.

But department officials said Tuesday that they long had planned to increase the number of cameras at some locations, and they denied the contract limited that total to 50 intersections.

"These are different approaches at those same intersections," said Executive Assistant Chief Martha Montalvo, who supervises the program.

Montalvo said the decision to add the new cameras had nothing to do with a new state law, which takes effect Saturday, that could require some cities to do engineering studies at new locations.

She also dismissed a common complaint that the new cameras were intended to generate more revenue, even as the new law requires that a portion of the fines go to a regional trauma center fund.

"This is not about revenue," she said. "This is about changing the behavior and public safety."

Earlier Tuesday, a spokesman for Mayor Bill White said the department wanted more coverage at the current locations, which include the southbound feeder road along the Southwest Freeway at Beechnut.

"You've got a lot of accidents there, so why would you limit yourself to only one angle and one camera?" White spokesman Frank Michel said. "The technology is helping us replace the officers. Would you station an officer at an intersection like that and say, 'Only ticket people who are in this one lane'?"

One location that will get an extra camera is the intersection of FM 1960 and Tomball Parkway, where the department has cited nearly 4,000 motorists from last November to July.

The department has said for more than a year that its initial plan was to install cameras at 50 intersections.

Montalvo said late Tuesday that she was not aware of any briefings to council members about the new cameras. But she said Police Chief Harold Hurtt had planned to make an announcement later this week.

Randall Kallinen, a lawyer who complained about the cameras before the council Tuesday, said he doubts safety motivated the department to increase the number of cameras at the intersections.

"The idea for the red-light cameras is to pick the problem areas," he said. "Is it a problem in one direction, or both directions?"

Montalvo has in the past said expanding to more sites was possible, but only after the department hired someone to study the effectiveness of the current cameras at reducing crashes.

Montalvo said Tuesday she had not arranged for such a study, but that one was still planned.

Councilman Adrian Garcia, a former police officer who heads the council's public safety committee, said the department needs to notify the public about the locations.

"But this has been such a well-discussed piece of policy that we've implemented that you've got to really not be from Houston to be aware of it," he said.

He added that motorists always should be mindful of traffic signals, cameras or not.

"Bottom line is: If you're driving on any street in America, you should know what a red light is."

HPD's acknowledgment of the new cameras comes as the council is expected Wednesday to consider state-mandated changes to the camera ordinance.

A newly worded ordinance would defer much of the administrative procedures for managing the camera system to a new state law. The law requires the city to issue citations to motorists who turn illegally at monitored intersections.

Only motorists who do not fully stop and yield to traffic and pedestrians before turning on red would be cited, police have said.

The new law also gives cited motorists more appeal powers, and requires the city to send half of its net profits to the regional trauma center fund.

Chronicle reporter Carolyn Feibel contributed to this report.

Here's list of the cameras: http://www.chron.com/mm/ymap/lightcams/

Other pages

• Red Light & Speed Cameras