Oakland Docs - Main Page - Red Light Cams - Illegal Red Light Cameras

Some of Oakland's tickets can possibly be ignored. If your "ticket" does not have the Superior Court's name and address on it, it is a fake ticket, what I call a "Snitch Ticket." In 2009, Snitch Tickets were 42% of everything Oakland mailed out. For more details about Snitch Tickets, see the heading below and the Snitch Ticket section on the Your Ticket page.

If you have an Oakland red light camera ticket, be sure to look at the Countywide Information section, below.

The City may hold a meeting about the cameras, in early 2013. For more info, see Set # 4, below.

This table made by highwayrobbery.net, using official reports provided by the City under the California Public Records Act.

Official reports, Aug08 to Jul10
Official reports, Aug09 to Aug10
Official reports, Aug10 to Oct11
Official reports, Oct11 to Jan12
Official reports, Feb12 to Aug12
Official reports, Sep12 to Dec12
Official report, Jan13
Official reports, Feb13 and Mar13 [9]
Official reports, Mar13 and Apr13

[ ] indicates a footnote.
[1] Totals are as provided by the City.
[2] YTD = Year-to-date total.
[3] Un-used columns are to allow for later expansion of City's system.
[4] Except where noted otherwise, the figures given in the table are for the single calendar month indicated. Any figures in red type (or, if you are looking at this table in black and white, the upper figure when there are two or more figures in a cell) are what RedFlex calls Total Violations, or all incidents recorded by the cameras. The figures in black type are what RedFlex calls Notices Printed, and represent the sum of genuine citations issued (those filed with the court) plus any Nominations mailed (not filed with the court, a.k.a. Snitch Tickets). Due to time limitations data may have been posted to the table only for selected months or locations. If there is sufficient public interest, the remaining months or locations will be posted. Full official data has been received and is available at one of the links given above.
[5] Data was requested on (date):
[6] The camera enforcement is believed to be on traffic on the first-named street, but the direction of enforcement (north, south, east, west, thru, left, right) is not yet available.
[7] Includes enforcement of posted "no turn on red" signs.
[8] The title bar has been repeated solely for the convenience of the reader - there is no difference between it and the one at the top of the table.
[9] This report was produced less than ten days after the end of the month, so may not include all tickets issued.

The Many Ups and Downs of Oakland Ticketing (Mainly Ups)

In December 2009 the City's traffic engineers added one second to the length of the yellows at the camera enforced intersections. As a result, ticketing dropped by almost half. The police quickly noticed the drop, and forced the traffic engineers to shorten the yellows - and ticketing came back up. See Matthew Artz' Oct. 7, 2012 article ("Ticket Revenue Factored Heavily in Oakland Red Light Cameras") in the Oakland Tribune.

More recently, ticketing in May thru August 2012 was a lot higher - up 49% - than in the same four months of 2011. If continued for the rest of 2012, that increase will yield 7149 more tickets costing the public $4.3 million in fines. At 27th & Northgate, ticketing rose 81%. During a 9-25-12 study session there was no discussion of the increase in ticketing, except that Councilmember Nancy Nadel seemed to be pleased with the very heavy ticketing at 27th & Northgate. She said (at 36:10 on the video), "Maybe more than one ticket will get them to realize that it's (turning right without making a full stop) not OK."
In Jan. 2013 ticketing at 27th & Northgate was more than 1/3 higher than in December 2012 and more than twice the average in Jan. - Dec. 2011.

Oakland's Snitch Tickets

A table received in Nov. 2012 revealed that Snitch Tickets have been as much as 42% of everything the City sent out.

Oakland Docs Set # 2
"Late Time" Graphs

The City has provided bar graphs of Late Times, etcetera, for all of its cameras.
These graphs track violations recorded, not tickets issued.
Where there is a large number of long Late Time violations in a curb lane, it is believed to indicate heavy ticketing on right turns.
(The curb lane will be the lane with the highest lane number.)

The picture above is an example from another city.

07JA-Jul09
07JA-Jul10
07JA-Jul11

27NO-Jul10
27NO-Jul11
27NO-Various Months

35MA-Jul10
35MA-Jul11

36MA-Jul10
36MA-Jul11

66SL-Jul09
66SL-Jul10
66SL-Jul11

BEMA-Jul10
BEMA-Jul11

FOHI-Jul10
FOHI-Jul11

HIBR-Jul10
HIBR-Jul11

MC82-Jul09
MC82-Jul10
MC82-Jul11

MCOA-Jul10
MCOA-Jan10 - Oct11 (Graph)
MCOA-Jan10 - Oct11 (Table)
MCOA-Jul11

NO27-Jul10
NO27-Jul11

REMO-Jul10
REMO-Jul11

SL66-Jul09
SL66-Jul10
SL66-Jul11

All Cameras-Mar13 (Table)

Bar graphs are available for more than fifty other cities - see the list in the expanded version of Defect # 9.

The City signed a contract with RedFlex on Aug. 31, 2007.

The contract is "flat rate" - it does not include an illegal "cost neutrality" clause.

The contract also says: Definitions. "Warning Period" means the period of thirty (30) days after the Installation Date of the first intersection approach. (Emphasis added.) See Defect # 6.

On Sept. 25, 2012 the City Council Public Safety Committee ("PSC") held a study session to decide whether to recommend to the full Council to extend the camera program for another three years. They received a 17-page report which recommended that the City pay a reduced rent (down from $5855) of $4625 per month for the thirteen existing cameras, for three more years.
At the $4625 price the City would pay $760,500 too much over the three years (when compared with a $3000 target price). See FAQ # 17.
After a more than 40 minute discussion (the video is available at the Oakland City website) the Committee asked for more information and for the matter to be brought back to the Committee on Oct. 9.

The report prepared for the Oct. 9, 2012 meeting contained a table of accidents 2008 - 2012 showing increases at some intersections. The Committee took no action, and put off the matter until Feb. 2013.

In February 2013 the matter was not on any of the agendas, nor was it agendized in March or April. If you hear about a tentative date, keep in mind that the date and/or time may change; so before driving to the meeting, check with the City, at (510) 238-3226 or 238-3266.

There is extensive program info at the police department's website.
If the link does not work, try drilling down:
oaklandnet.com > Government > Police Dept. > Vehicle Services/Traffic >
Traffic Operations Website (oaklandpolicetraffic.com) > red light camera

Oakland Docs Set # 6
Countywide Information

The info in Set # 6 is applicable throughout Alameda County - including Emeryville, Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward, Newark, and Fremont.
But only in Alameda County.

Read this Nov. 16, 2011 article. If you want to get away from someone like Commissioner Lonsdale (mentioned in the article), go to my Challenges page and read about Peremptory Challenge ("PC").

I also recommend doing a PC on Comm. Geoffrey Carter, who was sitting in Oakland but as of 2013 is in Fremont.

There is a protest group in Alameda County. If you would like to join the next protest, contact me.

Oakland Docs Set # 7
More Coming

There may be some more Oakland information posted in the next few weeks. Mark your calendar to remind you to come back here and look!

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