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RED LIGHT CAMERAS?
Manteca council gives green light to staff to explore red light cameras in bid to tame ‘wild west’ streets

Manteca Bulletin

Updated: Dec. 30, 2019, 1:23 a.m.

There may be red light cameras in the future at Manteca’s most problematic intersections where drivers routinely ignore red lights.

The majority of the council earlier this month — Mayor Ben Cantu as well as council members Dave Breitenbucher and Gary Singh — made it clear they favored looking into possibly installing them at major intersections. Councilman Jose Nuño didn’t make a comment one way or another about red light cameras while Councilwoman Debby Moorhead left the meeting early.

Interim City Manager Miranda Lutzow said staff would have a presentation on red light cameras prepared for a council meeting in February.

Cantu broached the subject while the council was reacting to a presentation by Manteca Police Traffic Unit Sgt. Josh Sweeten at the Dec. 17 council meeting regarding the 10-year trend in accidents and the correlation with tickets issued.

The report was a result of Cantu’s request that the council discuss his proposal to hire three additional traffic unit officers as soon as possible to address ongoing concerns voiced by residents on a daily basis about traffic issues in Manteca. Cantu proposed dipping into the city’s reserves to hire the three additional officers

When it was clear that the council majority wasn’t willing to commit to an annual ongoing expensive of roughly $450,000 to $500,000 a year all at once with other pressing municipal needs to weigh, Cantu advanced the idea of red light cameras.

That immediately drew support from Singh and Breitenbucher. Both also shared they are hearing loud and clear from residents that they want stepped up enforcement of red light running, stop sign running, and speeding.

When Jan. 21 rolls around, Manteca will be back up to a five officer dedicated traffic enforcement unit for the first time since October of 2009. The unit was slashed to three officers along with other citywide cuts in response to falling revenue from the impacts of the Great Recession.

Manteca Police at the time was budgeted for 83 officers and actually had 77 on staff. The ranks were thinned to 52 officers overall in October 2009. Manteca now has 75 officers.

The advent of a fifth traffic officer means a dedicated traffic enforcement officer will start working weekends Jan. 21 to augment what traffic enforcement patrol officers are able to do.

When pressed by Cantu how many dedicated traffic officers Manteca should have, Sweeten responded eight was a solid number. Manteca had 66,000 residents the last time the city had five traffic officers. Today there are 85,000 residents with four traffic officers.

Tickets for moving violations dropped off sharply after officers were laid off. Over the years accidents have creeped up. In the current year that ends in two days there have been a record eight traffic-related deaths on Manteca’s streets. Deaths on the 120 Bypass and Highway 99 are under the jurisdiction of the CHP and not the Manteca Police Department.

Singh questioned how tickets for the most egregious violations that lead to accidents — speeding, red light running and rolling through stop signs to name a few  — appeared to drop even when the city had three dedicated traffic officers through most of the decade.

Sweeten explained a lot of that had to do with increased accidents that pull traffic officers away from enforcement. At the same time when there was short staffing or a major incident was underway officers were pulled off of traffic to handle other calls or respond to urgent emergencies.

Sweeten noted patrol officers do traffic enforcement when they can.

Acting Police Chief Mike Aguilar noted the department was examining other strategies such as deploying community service officers to handle the majority of accident similar to what some other cities do in order to free up traffic officers to do more proactive enforcement.

Cantu, in making the pitch for red light cameras, noted that a number of drivers have created a “wild west” atmosphere on the streets  as Manteca added residents, vehicles and more street miles after the traffic unit was slashed by 40 percent.

“We need to put a little shock and awe out there,” Cantu said to get most people to stop ignoring traffic laws.

Singh noted that 12 years ago when traffic enforcement was much more aggressive and police motorcycle officers appeared “to be everywhere” he was worried about getting a ticket so he watched his driving more closely. It is a sentiment numerous other Manteca residents have shared.

While red light cameras aren’t a panacea, cities in California where they are deployed have reported a solid drop in the number of drivers running red lights at intersections where they are installed.

Singh noted red light cameras dovetail into recent council decisions to deploy license plate scanners as well as video cameras to augment the effectiveness of the police force.

Cantu had pushed to hire three more traffic officers back in September. The rest of the council wanted additional data before making a decision.

At the Dec. 17 meeting there was some support for phasing the three additional traffic officers in other a period of time.

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com