Cathedral City will get rid of its red light camera program in June

Corinne S Kennedy, The Desert Sun Published 12:35 p.m. PT April 27, 2018 | Updated 1:40 p.m. PT April 27, 2018

Those red light cameras in Cathedral City will be going away soon.

The City Council voted 4-1 on April 25 to cancel its contract with camera operator American Traffic Solutions Inc. because of the amount of police time needed to keep the program going. Councilmember Greg Pettis voted against ending the deal.

“We haven't seen significant improvements with respect to this," Councilmember Shelley Kaplan said, adding that police time would be better used on the street and not in an office, reviewing camera footage and doing paperwork.

The annual cost of the contract was $126,000. The city also had two officers who spent a combined 84 hours a month reviewing the violations caught on camera, preparing the citations and testifying in court when necessary, which equated to about one week each month of lost patrol time, Cathedral City Police Chief Travis Walker said. The cost for that work was approximately $128,000.

Last year, the city collected about $258,000 from those tickets, leaving the city with about $4,000 in net revenue – after paying for the contract with ATS and salaries for the two officers. The salaries come out of the city's general fund, while the citation revenue goes to traffic safety programs like school crossing guards.

Crossing guards are typically the responsibility of the school district, but Cathedral City had voluntarily decided to fund guards at some schools when the district was cash-strapped. City staff said Wednesday there was enough money in the traffic safety fund to continue paying the crossing guards until the school district could resume that responsibility.

The contract for the cameras initially came up at a previous council meeting, but the discussion was continued to April 25 because the information about the traffic safety programs was left out of the first staff report.

At that meeting, Kaplan said he was interested in looking at options for making intersections safer, like lengthening yellow lights or changing the speed at which the lights roll over, so all four lights are red at once for a few seconds.
Cathedral City Mayor Stan Henry delivers the StateBuy Photo

“I would personally much rather see the 84 hours a week available from our police force, out on the street, visible, and dealing with the safety issues that need to be handled,” he said.

Mayor Stan Henry expressed support for the cameras at the previous meeting, saying the devices could be used by police to help solve crimes, in addition to ticketing red light runners, but voted to terminate the contract on Wednesday.

Last year, Cathedral City collected about $258,000 from the more than 2,500 tickets issued, leaving the city with about $4,000 in net revenue, after paying for the contract with ATS and salaries for the two officers.

Cathedral City’s red light camera program began in 2006, at the intersection of Date Palm Drive and Ramon Road, and expanded in 2009, with cameras at the intersections of Ramon Road and Landau Boulevard and Vista Chino and Date Palm Drive.

The annual number of accidents at the three intersections had fluctuated since the inception of the program and the introduction of the two additional cameras.

Earlier article

Previously: Cathedral City to revisit red light camera use
The Cathedral City Council will decide Wednesday whether or not to renew a contract with the company operating the city's red light cameras.

According to a 2016 report from the police department, the city saw about 75 traffic collisions in 2006 at all three intersections, only one of which had a red light camera at the time. That dropped to under 40 in 2007 and to 20 in 2008.

That tally dropped further to about 15 each year in 2009 and 2010, after the two additional cameras were introduced, before rebounding in the past three years. There were 91 crashes at the three intersections in 2015, 110 in 2016 and 75 in 2017, according to a city staff report.

Two residents made public comments the first time the issue was raised, both in opposition to the cameras. At the April 25 meeting, resident Ernesto Gutierrez said he thought police officer time would be better spent on the streets and not behind a desk.

Three people also submitted comments for the record, all in opposition to the program. None of the letter-writers were Cathedral City residents.

Cathedral City was the only city in the valley that had operational red light cameras. Other cities had previously had red light camera programs, but have discontinued them.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 23 states and the District of Columbia have at least one operational red light camera as of the beginning of the month.

The current contract will expire in June.

@CorinneSKennedy


Comments, as of June 25, 2018


Shilo Herrling
I understand that Police Officers likely don't work a straight 40 hours per week, but any way you look at it, the 84 hours per month spent sitting in an office poring over videos and other tasks related to the cameras equates to a half-time Officer in my book. I'd much rather those Officers were out on the street, even if they're sitting at intersections watching traffic. I also understand Mayor Stan's issue about how the videos can help solve crimes, but perhaps 24-hour cameras with video backup (like they use at convenience stores) could be installed for a one-time fee. The only time the video would need to be monitored would be if a crime was committed.
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James Walker
A very good analysis.

James C. Walker, National Motorists Association
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James Walker
Ours was one of the three letters to the council pointing out the lack of any real safety benefits, the likely financial losses in the future, and the severe economic damage the cameras do to the area economy by shipping so much money out of the community to Arizona and Sacramento. In a very good move, Cathedral City became the 80th California community to end red light cameras or ban them before they started. There will now be only 29 active programs in a state that once had over a hundred. Residents of those 29 communities need to attend every council meeting to speak against the cameras and continue coming until the rackets are gone.

James C. Walker, National Motorists Association
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