Headline: Culver City police admit they got the wrong guy with red-light camera ticket and apologize to actor Red light cam ticket Actor Steve Tom of North Hollywood holds an image from a red-light-camera ticket issued by Culver City police. Tom's name is on the citation, but the vehicle's registered owner has a St. Louis address. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) By Richard Winton LA Times, Aug. 2, 2016, page B3 A red-light camera fiasco has left some Culver City police officials with red faces as they admitted Monday they got the wrong man. The Police Department dismissed a $490 ticket issued to actor Steve Tom for allegedly running a red light and acknowledged it was a case of mistaken identity. Authorities now believe a man who resembles Tom and is the registered owner of the vehicle was the driver. “We are dismissing the citation in the interest of justice,” Culver City Police Capt. Ron Iizuka said. The department decided to reexamine video from the red-light camera and speak to the vehicle’s registered owner after Tom questioned the ticket in a Times report. Iizuka said it determined Tom was not the driver. "Mr. Tom is happy and we are happy to resolve this,” he said. The mix-up may have resulted in part from an uncanny resemblance. The ticket had Tom's name on it, but the address was in St. Louis, far from Tom’s North Hollywood home. And the registered owner of the white Land Rover Discovery that allegedly ran the red was someone named Barry L. Babcock. Attached to the ticket was a photo from the red-light camera video. Tom said he and Babcock looked an awful lot alike. Tom, 62, said he is glad the bizarre episode is over, but doesn't know why it took an article in The Times and his own sleuthing to figure things out. He said he received an apology Monday morning after the department reviewed video of who was behind the wheel during the incident on June 15 at 2:44 p.m. "I'm fine with the outcome," he said. According to the video, the vehicle made a right turn on a red at Sepulveda Boulevard and Green Valley Circle. After receiving the citation two weeks ago, Tom, who played a judge on the TV drama “Major Crimes,” scoured the Internet for information about Babcock. He quickly found images of the former cable television executive. Tom said he was taken aback by their resemblance. He hired a private investigator and found addresses in Florida and Missouri. All the while, Culver City police were insisting he was the culprit. “The guy insisted to me the department got the right guy and it was me,” Tom told The Times. “The city was going to win. He said, ‘When I saw the photograph, I knew it was you. You can bring as many attorneys, but it is you.’” Iizuka told The Times last week one of the officers knew Tom and identified him as the man in the video. Babcock, meanwhile, acknowledged that he didn’t know Tom, but declined to comment at length about the red-light violation or ticket. Red-light cameras have been a financial boon for Culver City since 1999. They’re installed at 11 intersections across town, according to city records. In 2014, the cameras generated more than $2 million in revenue, with about 40% going to a company that operates the system, according to the records. Jay Beeber of Safer Streets L.A., a group that successfully campaigned to eliminate Los Angeles’ red-light cameras in 2012, said the ticket Tom got raised questions. “That is the craziest red-light cam ticket I have ever heard of and I have been doing this awhile,” Beeber said. “They have to have a reasonable suspicion…. What other evidence do they have?” According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the number of cities nationwide using red-light cameras has declined to about 400 from more than 700 in recent years as questions over whether they improve safety have arisen. More than 100 cities in California once used the cameras, but that number has dropped by about two-thirds, Beeber said. In Tom’s case, Iizuka said Culver City police were happy to correct the error. "Thank you for keeping us on our toes," he told a reporter Monday. Comments (71) TheCheddar - TheCheddar I got rear-ended because of traffic cameras in Culver -- Everyone brakes hard at the yellow to avoid getting a ticket, as I did when two cars plowed into me. The woman behind was injured and three cars were totaled (over $250k in her insurance co's payout). Is that really worth the $1.2 million in "revenue" over 18 years?! Statistically, the accidents and injuries caused by red light cameras FAR, FAR surpass revenue. unclesmrgol unclesmrgol Note to CCPD -- don't promote officer who misidentified citizen. 7 days ago NetWait NetWait What kind of id/ot would go by who they think a grainy picture resembles instead of the freakin' registration? 9 days ago TheCheddar - TheCheddar @NetWait - The Culver City Police, that's what kind of id/ot. 7 days ago wpmaynard - wpmaynard The police officers in the Culver City red light district program have been playing this con game of for years. They can never make a decision that you are not the person in the picture and require you to go to court to prove it is not you. Is about time somebody exposed them for what they are moneygrubbing - revenue collected - out of control police working under the the cover of authority. City leaders, City Council, mayor and police chief should be ashamed how they are fleecing the citizens and visitors to Culver City« less 10 days ago SHA694$ - SHA694$ Those camera's are illegal and no fines should be paid. This is extortion. A sledgehammer should be taken to those things! 10 days ago Citi2010 - Citi2010 It is completely bizarre that they are not suspecting the registered owner of a vehicle, but some minor tv-personality who some cop thought he recognized. Worse, 40% to the company who operates the cameras. Are these folks mad. That is a scam right there. 10 days ago Chelina2012 - Chelina2012 Iizuka told The Times last week one of the officers knew Tom and identified him as the man in the video. This right here....is a cause for lawsuit. This is why the case was dismissed. --- But ONCE again......LAT The Headline should read Police Mis Identify driver. In Tom’s case, Iizuka said Culver City police were happy to correct the error. "Thank you for keeping us on our toes," he told a reporter Monday. 11 days ago midookie - midookie I want to know what Steve Tom did to have them re-investigate the case besides writing an article on Time. Because I'm in the SAME EXACT SITUATION!! I mean, do you have to be famous or publish something in magazine to get them to do that?? If they're so convinced it was him in the red light picture, what one must do?? I'm in the bay area and not LA County so I can't just ignore it. Please help! 11 days ago ricardo27 - ricardo27 I got the who, the where and the when, but the how and the why are unclear. How did his name get on the ticket? How did the process allow for that? Why was the ticket not sent to the registered owner of the car? Or was it? Why did CPD think it could successfully defend in court a bust based solely on an officer recognizing you off a grainy photo taken from the torso up through glass in a moving vehicle? Or did it? The fact that someone got a bogus ticket, decided to fight it and won is interesting material for an article, but what I really want to know how and why these things happen.« less 11 days ago Henry Heighweigh - Henry Heighweigh I forgot to mention: In LA County, red light camera tickets can be ignored. For further info, do a search on red light camera no consequence and read the articles by the Times and other local media outlets. 11 days ago Juswannateach - Juswannateach Must have been a slow news day geez LA TMZIMES 11 days ago Henry Heighweigh - Henry Heighweigh In early 2016 Culver City increased ticketing at Sepulveda/Green Valley to ten times what it was in 2015. (In the average month of 2015 they issued 130 tickets at that intersection, while the months of March and April 2016 averaged 1350 tickets each month.) And, the City is gonna expand ticketing elsewhere in town; they are now in the late planning stages to install cameras at two intersections adjacent to the parking lots for the new - and very popular - Expo light rail line. Their justification for the the new cameras - which will issued mostly right turn tickets - is just in case the light rail riders get out of line. With the already expanded ticketing at Green Valley, and the new cameras planned for the light rail locations, Culver City is expected to be issuing more than 5000 tickets a month by late 2016. And that is more than twice any other city in California. It is really mindless that simply because he looks like the guy photographed behind the wheel of an out of state vehicle, the CCPD would ticket an actor they'd seen on TV. But as you can see from the comments made by the CCPD, they are really lovin' this camera thing. Some pundits have described the camera income as "crack cocaine" for cities; I nominate Culver City to be the "poster boy."« less 11 days ago Rickyjay1 - Rickyjay1 @Henry Heighweigh It's not the PD that loves the cams, it's the greedy city managers, who make millions of dollars off of the tickets, who love it. The PD is just doing what they city tells them to do...enforce the lame, red light cameras. 10 days ago beachykeeno - beachykeeno So many questions! Why would they have an officer reviewing video footage when they have the address (and probably name?) of the registered owner of the car that was being driven? It sounds like an awful lot of manpower waste. Plus which, we are talking about *turning right* on a red, not blowing through a red light at an intersection. Plus, I thought turning right on a red was ok if you stopped first. I actually got a ticket myself at that very intersection for not stopping before turning right on a red. I was on my moped! I couldn't believe it.« less 11 days ago Citizen_Cain - Citizen_Cain These cameras are a scam operated by out-of-state private companies with kickbacks to the city. I received a $490 ticket in the mail and I have to fight it. My car was photographed clearly in the intersection when the light changed to red and yet they said it was illegal. I had to argue my case providing speed, velocity and acceleration calculations and my own dash cam footage to prove that at the rate of speed the traffic was flowing in, I would have caused a major crash had I slammed on my brakes when the light changed to yellow. They returned my check and dismissed the citation without an explanation. It involved several hours of my time to fix this. Guilty until proven innocent.« less 11 days ago (edited) FrankLevine - FrankLevine how come a two bit character actor gets not one but two large articles about a traffic ticket? if it happened to me would it get in the Times? i know there are such things as 'slow news days' but come on. you wasted a lot of space on this and it is NON NEWS. with all the things going on in the world today you focus on something this stupid? I keep getting insanely high bills from the DWP, can you please send a reporter to my house so i can get my problem solved? seriously, they're out of control at the DWP and i could use some help. too bad i'm not an actor, i'm sure i could benefit from all the publicity. i think i need to stop actually READING the Times before i use it to line the bottom of my parrots cages.« less 11 days ago beachykeeno - beachykeeno @FrankLevine Are you expecting the Times to just find you? Maybe you should try writing to David Lazarus about your insanely high bill and problem. You could become part of a story and maybe have a change--if your problem is legit. 11 days ago FrankLevine - FrankLevine @beachykeeno i wrote to them when they were running stories about the billing problems at the dwp several times, and nobody contacted me, of course i don't expect them to just find me. how snide of you. and to imply i'm lying about my problem... why would i need to do that? it's a documented fact that the dwp is sending out insanely high bills to people. you get my dick of the day award beachystinko... 10 days ago FrankLevine - FrankLevine how come a two bit character actor gets not one but two large articles about a traffic ticket? if it happened to me would it get in the Times? i know there are such things as 'slow news days' but come on. you wasted a lot of space on this and it is NON NEWS. with all the things going on in the world today you focus on something this stupid? i think i need to stop actually READING the Times before i use it to line the bottom of my parrots cages. 11 days ago LA Voter - LA Voter Wait -- are you saying a Los Angeles police officer acted without full knowledge of the circumstances or actual evidence and denied a citizen due process? That's shocking. In other news, that officer's union says it's fully prepared to back the officer in his mis-identification of the "perp," saying Mr. Tom "had it coming." What's so ridiculous is you know this officer said, "I recognize this guy!" from a blurry photo, and a vague memory of an episode of "Major Crimes" and made the ID off of IMDB. They didn't even bother to reconcile the fact that he was driving a car they couldn't connect to him. The only thing surprising about this is that they were this disrespectful of a white member of the public. If Mr. Tom were black or Hispanic he'd still be fighting.« less 11 days ago Rickyjay1 - Rickyjay1 @LA Voter No one said a "Los Angeles police officer" did anything. This was in Culver City. In your blind rage to rip LA cops you made a screw up...hmmmm, just like the officers did. 10 days ago Mark-Long Beach - Mark-Long Beach This is outrageous, the people at the police department that are responsible should be severely disciplined for this nonsense. 11 days ago brian aka modmax - brian aka modmax The proliferation of cameras all over is scary and now we have proof that at least some of these cameras are linked to facial recognition technology. The government should not be tracking us on our every move with this technology. The potential for this to be used against us and violate our liberty outweighs the few bad guys they will catch with It is obvious the computer identified Tom as the driver based on the database. The cops won't investigate burglaries of homes so they sent the ticket to who the computer said was driving rather than the registered owner. This is an Orwellian takeover.« less 11 days ago (edited) Terminator80s - Terminator80s The city of Cerritos just ripped out all their red light cameras. Every other city in California should follow their example. 11 days ago Scathing & Precise - Scathing & Precise There are far too many words in this article,for the reader who takes the time to go over it,not to understand what happened. Please hire some editors. 11 days ago Kevin Nelson - Kevin Nelson "Tom, 62, said he is glad the bizarre episode is over, but doesn't know why it took an article in The Times and his own sleuthing to figure things out." Because the cops dont care about you or your problems, and they never want to admit they are wrong. ""Mr. Tom is happy and we are happy to resolve this,” he (Captain Iisuka) said." No, they arent. They were happy to have Tom pay an undeserved ticket, and go away. They werent happy to see their arrogance and incompetence put on display for all to see.« less 11 days ago AllOuttaBubbleGum - AllOuttaBubbleGum Red light cameras are horrible. 11 days ago Jana Monji - Jana Monji The Culver City police department should pay the cost of the private investigator and any other costs Steve Tom incurred. 11 days ago Resident Boomer - Resident Boomer @Jana Monji My sentiments exactly. 11 days ago Brainwashed_in_Church - Brainwashed_in_Church @Jana Monji "The Culver City police department should pay.." = "the taxpayers who fund the police department should pay..." 11 days ago Jana Monji - Jana Monji @Brainwashed_in_Church I don't agree with that. The Culver City police department made a decision on the identification that does not seem to follow regular protocol. 11 days ago unclesmrgol - unclesmrgol @Brainwashed_in_Church I live in Culver City, and supposedly the Police Department is the enforcement arm of a government of citizens. If taxpayer pain is what it takes to have the Police Department change this type of stupidity, then so be it. 7 days ago Jana Monji - Jana Monji @unclesmrgol I think the people in Santa Monica should protest since people with tickets from Culver City red light cameras go to Santa Monica traffic courts. 7 days ago Pimms11 - Pimms11 People, let's be grateful this was a traffic ticket. This was POLICE identification of a criminal--what if this had been surveillance camera video of a major crime scene?? Mr. Tom could've been fighting a murder charge from a jail cell. Again and again we read that testimony based on visual identification is unreliable but man, what a clear demonstration. 11 days ago Rick James Brown - Rick James Brown The private detective he hired probably cost him more than the ticket would have ! 11 days ago Editor's Pick - Editor's Pick $490 for a rolling right turn on red is outrageous. If you make minimum wage, that is a more than a week's pay after taxes! I would avoid Culver City businesses until all the cameras are gone. 11 days ago jbh-1957 - jbh-1957 @Editor's Pick Or you could, you know, stop at the red light before turning right. 11 days ago John Oliver1 - John Oliver1 @Editor's Pick - What does what someone makes have to do with it? If $490 is not the correct fine, then change it. If it is for some people, it must be for everyone. Let's pretend for a moment that someone has, in fact, run a red light. How much should they pay? Do I pay the same amount as the burger flipper? If not, why not? 11 days ago ratzorizzo69 - ratzorizzo69 Worst, most overpriced section of West LA. More cops with shiny boots than pedestrians. 11 days ago machine head - machine head Thanks for reminding me to avoid Culver City and to spend my money elsewhere. 11 days ago Jana Monji - Jana Monji @machine head I avoid Culver City as a result. Also the time between red lights and green lights vary from city to city, making how much time a driver has during a yellow light hard to predict. 11 days ago grammymb - grammymb It's Leslie Nielsen. 11 days ago shiromeo - shiromeo Can someone please explain to me how did the ticket even get to Tom in the first place when the only identification here is a license plate? 11 days ago grammymb - grammymb @shiromeo The article noted that his cop friend ratted him out. 11 days ago Editor's Pick - Editor's Pick @shiromeo Donut induced hallucination 11 days ago Jerry W. Lewis - Jerry W. Lewis please sue the city 11 days ago ?ratzorizzo69 - ratzorizzo69 Culver City: "Hey, its Jerry Lewis ...get him!" 11 days ago woof woof - woof woof $490 for a rolling red-light right turn? Seems excessive. Because there is no human at the scene, there is no one to factor in just how unsafe the turn was. This is just a revenue generator--a very inefficient revenue generator, being that 40% of the fine goes to the red light camera company. And you cause animosity between the people and the police, to boot. Anyway, I'm really glad that Steve Tom was exonerated and vindicated! Thank you for fighting. It helps all of us! Maybe the Culver City Police will proceed with a little more humility and fairness next time instead of judging him guilty from the outset and refusing to consider excellent exculpatory evidence until they were shamed by the LA Times. Good job following this story, LA Times!« less 11 days ago Jana Monji - Jana Monji @woof woof If you get the ticket you have to go to traffic court in Santa Monica, not Culver City. So it is a real win for Culver City. I got one, but was followed by someone coming up fast. It doesn't matter. One study cites an increase of rear-end accidents because of red-light traffic cams, but the city doesn't have to pay for those. Insurance companies do. 11 days ago ptl727 ptl727 Red-light cameras serve no purpose other than to get some cash for the city and more so to give political favors to camera company operators. This is a real crime! 11 days ago Orange County dude Orange County dude Red-light cameras serve no purpose other than to collect money for the city's treasury and to cause rear-end collisions. They do not lead to safer driving. I say ban them all. 11 days ago Jake Gimbel's Guppies Jake Gimbel's Guppies Ships Coffee Shop, The Surprise Store, Lerners, Wellington Drug Store, Meralta Theater, Steller & Skoog, Culver Grammar School, Roller Drome, Bill Murphy Buick, Jacks Ranch Market, Unimart, Fox Hills Golf Course, Hughes Airport, Lopez Ranch, Machado Windmill, Fiesta La Ballona Parade, MGM, Desilu, need I go on? 11 days ago Resident Boomer Resident Boomer @Jake Gimbel's Guppies Forgot my cousin's successful guitar store, Blvd. Music over on Sepulveda and Culver Blvd. 11 days ago rickshaw1a rickshaw1a @Jake Gimbel's Guppies Airport Village, Grants Department Store in Culver Center. And how can you forget the Studio Drive-In??? 11 days ago Culver City sets their yellow lights for the shortest allowable time to make it more likely people will get tagged for running the light. I avoid going to or through the city. It's one big ticket generating trap. I won't go there unless I have to for business. 12 days ago Kevin Nelson Kevin Nelson @msblack Speeding isnt being enforced by cameras, and slamming on your brakes at a yellow light is a sure way to get rear-ended. 11 days ago Jana Monji Jana Monji @acct00000 When I got a red-light ticket for a right turn, I learned that Culver City uses the lowest allowable time for a yellow light as opposed to the recommended time. Yellow light times vary from city to city. I didn't know that before I got the ticket. 11 days ago (edited) bobjay805 bobjay805 Culver City law enforcement is not the brightest light bulb on the marque. I attempted to have a conversation about Saturday parking in an industrial area of town where the streets were empty but the parking sign limited cars to two hours. Common sense said it makes no good reason to prohibit parking on a Saturday when no one is working. Wanted to take the light rail to a USC football game. No parking at the metro lot, it was full. Side street Saturday parking limited the empty street to two hours. Police department didn't want to discuss said parking not their problem. Where is common sense? Police wouldn't discuss or even acknowledge this should be addressed. Where do I go to learn why this is so? Just asking for information...it's not their department. Typical bureaucrats!« less 12 days ago unclesmrgol unclesmrgol @bobjay805 The CCPD are Bruins fans. 12 days ago Juswannateach Juswannateach I received four RLC tickets and never paid for are we're convicted for one anyone who does is a loser! 12 days ago Rickyjay1 Rickyjay1 @Juswannateach Well, I'm glad for that, because RLC's are a scam. My concern, however, is...are you an English teacher? 10 days ago Juswannateach Juswannateach @Rickyjay1 No I just tutor your mom! If you know what I mean. ? 10 days ago Juswannateach Juswannateach They still have red light cameras in Culver City? 12 days ago Jana Monji Jana Monji @Juswannateach Yes. http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Red-Light-Citations-Leave-Drivers-Confused-339034242.html 11 days ago jamesl7 jamesl7 spike strips for drivers who run the red lights, cams or not? 12 days ago robert859 robert859 I got a ticket at the same intersection, making a right turn. 12 days ago