Red light on new revenues

Looks like many OC cities are not collecting those big sums from red-light camera violations:

As many as 25,000 motorists have successfully evaded tickets for running red lights in Orange County by simply doing nothing, as some police agencies are failing to follow through on persons who ignore citations from automated cameras, it was reported today. "It’s not a real good message to get out there to the public," conceded Orange County Superior Court administrator Alan Slater. An investigation by the Orange County Register found that cities may have forfeited as much as $3.5 million in traffic fines from scofflaws, while law-abiding motorists caught by the cameras are paying fines, taking expensive remedial driving lessons, and forking over increased auto insurance payments. The newspaper found that police and court workers in various O.C. cities rarely complete the lengthy paperwork to go after motorists who ignore initial citations that are sent out by mail. Seven O.C. cities currently use the cameras at a total of 36 intersections. In addition to prosecuting lawbreakers, the automated machines are a proved to reduce the number of motorists who run red lights, and reduce collision rates. Some agencies said they were unaware that tickets issued in their city were going unprosecuted. "We didn’t know there was a mechanism to follow up on the case," Los Alamitos police chief Todd Mattern told the Register. (CNS)

Comments

[Kate]

They've recently installed these at Wilshire and Westwood, and the cameras and lights seem to go off randomly, regardless of what cars are doing or what color the stoplights are. I have to wonder what the point of that is, too.