Osceola County eyeing red light cameras

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Osceola County eyeing red light cameras

County News

Friday, 23 November 2012 00:00

By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer
While it’s not imminent, Osceola County is one step closer to joining Kissimmee in adding red light cameras to its busiest intersections.
The Board of County Commissioners heard a presentation at its Monday workshop from Charlie Buckels, the Southeast U.S. Regional Manager for Redflex Traffic Systems, the outfit used by Kissimmee for its cameras. Afterward, the board gave enough support to County Manager Don Fisher to move toward with identifying what the main points of a contract with Redflex would that best suit the county’s traffic enforcement needs.
The commissioners who supported installing the cameras did so with the intent of raising public safety, not revenue, at busy intersections.
The only voice firmly against them was Chairman John Quiñones, who didn’t feel the system would serve as such a strong safety component and asked that the county instead look at improving its countywide traffic light synchronization system.
“I’m sure in the back of our minds, we’re thinking of George Orwell and the 1984 effect,” he said, referring to the all-seeing “Big Brother” notion that residents and their license plates will be recorded at intersections.
Commissioner Fred Hawkins Jr. didn’t see the concern with that.
“If you’re not doing anything wrong, what do you care if you’re on camera?” he said.
Commissioner Brandon Arrington said the warning signs about the cameras, and not the cameras themselves, might have the biggest impact on reducing the number of motorists who run the red light, thereby reducing crashes.
“If you can see a sign at that intersection, I almost guarantee that you won’t run the light,” he said, noting that he once received a violation from a red light camera in another state.
Buckels presented the features of the Redflex’s system, including RedflexHalo, which allows for detection of cars about to run a red light and can hold the green light for the opposing direction. He also told of how the system is compliant with the Mark Wandell Traffic Safety Act, signed into Florida law by then-Governor Charlie Crist on May 13, 2010, that created the uniform standards for using cameras as traffic camera devices.
The state-mandated fine for being caught running a red light by a camera in full operational mode is $158, sent to the vehicle’s owner. It is designated a “code violation” rather than a moving violation, so no points are assessed unless it goes unpaid for 30 days, at which time a traffic citation is issued.
The county would receive about $75 of the fine to cover its monthly costs of monitoring the cameras. Should the county collect less than the monthly fees owed, Redflex would accept the lower amount, Buckels said.
“The system is 100 percent violator funded,” he said.
He noted that numbers culled from April to November at the intersection of Main Street and Neptune Road, where Kissimmee runs a camera, showed that violations decreased by 48.5 percent during the period.
“The cameras provide law enforcement with an evidence package,” Buckels said. “It is important that it maintains the highest level of integrity possible and that only law enforcement will have access to that. With this we can change the discussion from enforcement to crash prevention.”
Buckels said that while legal challenges are the system’s single biggest financial risk and that there have been challenges in Florida regarding enforcement-by-camera’s constitutionality, they have largely been resolved.
Sheriff Bob Hansell attended the workshop and said that while his units work thousands of crashes a year, “we’re lucky to get one or two FHP troopers to help, and our traffic enforcement units write many times more tickets than Highway Patrol.”
He said he’s interested in exploring the system in order to enhance public safety and traffic control, noting “we kinda like the Halo system if it can be implemented. But I don’t see this as a revenue stream.”
Dave Derrick, the city of Kissimmee’s Director of Public Works, said that since the city’s set of cameras, mostly found on the Vine Street and John Young Parkway corridors, went into operational mode, 20,000 violations have been caught and nearly 10,000 notices have been written and sent out.
“I didn’t expect it to be that high,” he said. “And we haven’t put one penny into this system.”
Commissioners Mike Harford and Frank Attkisson said they were both willing to further explore the issue, but not as solely a driver of revenue. Arrington said any returns generated could find a better use than simply going into the county’s genera fund.
“I’d like to bring forth ideas to use that revenue for public safety and intersection improvement,” he said.