The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Motorists who run red lights or park in the path of Chicago’s 118 street sweepers will have a far greater chance of getting caught on Candid Camera, thanks to $59.2 million in contracts awarded by the city last month.
Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems has installed red light cameras at 69 accident-prone Chicago intersections since 2003, pumping out more than 800,000 in citations at $90 a pop. The fine was recently raised to $100 to scale back Mayor Daley’s record property tax increase.
Now the company that ushered in the brave new world of traffic enforcement in Chicago will do the same at 220 additional intersections by 2012, dramatically increasing annual red light revenues expected to rise to $50 million this year.
The five-year, $52 million contract will allow lead-footed motorists caught on camera running red lights to view the cold, hard video evidence against them instantly — with the click of a mouse. They’ll simply need to type in their license plate number, along with the citation and code number
“This gives them immediate access to a 12-second, full-color digital video and digital stills of their specific violation. It is anticipated that the enhanced feature will increase public acceptance of the technology [and] reduce the number of appeal hearings requested,” the contract states.
Internet viewing technology is already up and running — one of a series of upgrades provided by Redflex, which bills itself as the “industry leader” and Chicago’s program as the “largest, most successful photo enforcement program” in the nation.
The latest generation of Redflex cameras also features: fewer flashes; fewer, smaller and less obtrusive poles; no “roadside cabinet” to house the camera software and unspecified “collision pre-emption features.” Chicago also gets an aggressive public education campaign and live “streaming video from each intersection” that can be used to monitor local disasters or adjust traffic signals to ease congestion.
Assuming the city can find the money, the Redflex contract outlines an aggressive installation schedule that calls for 88 more intersections per-year and 580 by December, 2012 provided funding can be identified.
A few months ago, Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) raised questions about the dramatic expansion without competitive bidding of a 2003 Redflex contract that was supposed to be an experiment.
The new contract was competitively bid and Redflex was the lowest of five bidders, reducing the cost of each installation from $100,000 to $24,500 for the “bulk order,” according to Jennifer Martinez, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
“It’s protecting the residents of Chicago. We saw a massive [58 percent] decline in red light violations” at the 69 intersections where cameras are already in place, Martinez said.
The company’s lobbyists include former Ald. Mark Fary (12th), husband of O’Hare expansion chief Rosemarie Andolino, and Bill Griffin, a friend of Burke and Mayor Daley who once served as chief of staff under former Mayor Jane Byrne.
Here's what Alderman Burke
said according to Chicagoist:
Back in June, Alderman Ed Burke acknowledged that the only real reason for installing cameras is to create another source of revenue for the city. Burke famously argued that radar devices that would warn drivers of the cameras (and increase the likelihood that they obey the law) should be banned, because fewer violations would mean less revenue. "The reality is that people blow through these intersections and they are going to be caught and they are going to be fined. It has become a big revenue source, absolutely," Burke said. In 2008 alone, the city expects to collect about $50 million from the cameras, for which they’re spending $59.2 million – that's a pretty impressive return on investment.
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Alderman Burke.
