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[City Seal]
CITY
OF POMONA
COUNCIL
REPORT
March 20, 2006
No.
06-108
To: Honorable Mayor
and Members of the
City Council
From:
Douglas Dunlap, City
Manager [initialed]
Submitted By: James M. Lewis, Chief of Police [initialed]
Subject: Red
Light
Camera Traffic Enforcement Feasibility Report
SUMMARY
Recommendation — That the City
Council hold a discussion
and provide direction on the issue of establishing a Red Light Camera
Traffic
Enforcement Program in the City of Pomona.
Fiscal Impact — There is
no
fiscal impact associated with this action.
Previous Related Action —
None.
Council Goals and Objectives — V.
“Ensure safe
communities through increased, targeted and planned Public Safety
efforts.”
BACKGROUND
Advances in technology have
provided numerous
opportunities to enhance law enforcement capabilities. One such
technological
evolution is the use of automated red light camera traffic violation
ticketing
systems in high-violation/accident street intersections. The
application of
this technology involves installing either digital, still photo or
video camera
equipment that is directly connected to the traffic signal and able to
automatically take a picture of a vehicle that has entered the
intersection
illegally. Red light camera systems are mainly utilized by law
enforcement as a
measure to reduce the number of traffic collisions at identified
problem
intersections, particularly those with a high incidence of major
injuries or
fatalities. Red light violation camera triggered pictures are then
visually
reviewed for confirmation, whereupon the affirmed violator is issued a
traffic
citation by mail.
DISCUSSION
In researching the costs and
benefits of establishing a
red light camera citation program in the City of Pomona, staff received
"knowledgeable/expert" input from experienced traffic enforcement
officers assigned to the Police Department’s Traffic Bureau, as well as
other
local law enforcement agencies currently operating such systems.
Additionally,
companies that provide this technology were contacted and solicited for
input.
The following is a summary of this input:
•
Red light
camera systems have the most positive impact in terms of both costs and
benefits for chronic/high accident rate intersections. According to
statistics
maintained by the Police Department's Traffic Bureau, the City of
Pomona does
not have a major red light violation traffic collision intersection
problem.
Traffic accident data for the most recent four-year period has
identified the
City’s most traffic collision prone intersection to be located at
Indian Hill
Avenue and San Bernardino Road. At this intersection there were a total
of
twenty-six (26) collisions during this four-year period, which averages
to 6.3
collisions per year. The next highest traffic collision intersection
was
located at Fairplex and Valley, which totaled twenty-five (25) during
the same
four-year period, averaging 6.25 collisions per year. Not all of these
accidents were a result of red light violations.
•
The
installation and ongoing service and maintenance costs for red light
camera
systems are considerable. While some of this cost is offset by
additional
traffic violation enforcement revenue, the actual amount of additional
revenue
received is directly related to the number of additional violation
citations
issued and can be further influenced by vendor imposed system
maintenance fees
and operating expenses. Contacting other local cities (Montclair, and
Rancho
Cucamonga) operating Red Light camera systems, it was concluded that
those
agencies were spending more on maintaining the system than additional
supporting revenue being generated. Typically, red light system vendors
will
waive the installation fee for each intersection, which could range
from
$50,000 to $100,000. It is then the City’s responsibility to install a
DSL line
to transmit the photo and/or video data images. Once installed and made
operational, the City would be subject to a vendor monthly service fee
that can
range between $5,000 to $7,000 per intersection. Additionally, vendors
also
receive a percentage of the red light violation fines levied on
drivers.
Accordingly, only high-violation rate intersections are potentially
capable of
yielding enough offsetting revenue to compensate for the increased
expense to
the City and enhanced traffic safety benefit for the community. Also,
depending
on the particular vendor agreement, potential costs can vary
significantly. For
example, the City of Rancho Cucamonga currently has an agreement with
its red
light camera system vendor which provides for a “citation-based”
contract.
Pursuant to this provision, if citation violation revenue received for
a 4-way
intersection does not exceed $16,920 per month, the City must pay the
difference to the vendor.
•
The overall
effectiveness of the traffic safety service level provided to the
community is
a fundamental priority for the Police Department. Central to this goal
is the
optimum utilization of resources. The preceding points of consideration
have
not included the reallocation of traffic enforcement police officer
time that
would be shifted away from field enforcement duties to administrative
review of
each individual red light violation citation issued. According to
information
obtained from the Upland Police Department, one officer spends, on
average,
about two to three hours per day reviewing each of the approximately
220 red
light camera violations per month. This amounts to neatly 76 hours that
would
have otherwise been devoted to field traffic enforcement. Moreover,
this
strictly limits this officer’s time to red light traffic violation
enforcement
as opposed to overall traffic safety duties, including equally high
priority
enforcement for such violations as Driving Under the Influence (DUI).
RECOMMENDATION
That the City Council hold a
discussion and provide
direction on the issue of establishing a Red Light Camera Traffic
Enforcement
Program in the City of Pomona.
[This is a full and complete copy
of the official
document, made by highwayrobbery.net by OCR from a faxed original.]
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