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Common Sense Policing

Well...do you know the way to San Jose? :)

It appears the police in San Jose, California have the common sense to stand up and declare they want nothing to do with red light cameras.

At a City council transportation committee meeting on Monday, the Department urged council to drop the plan to install traffic cameras in the heart of California's Silicon Valley due to the potentially negative impact on public safety.

Deputy Chief Donald Anders stated "Studies reveal an awful lot of ambiguity and dissonance, some jurisdictions have noted a reduction in their traffic accident rate. Other jurisdictions have noted an actual increase in their traffic accident rate. The reason for that increase primarily seems to be rear end accidents. As people become more aware of a red light running program, a more vigilant attempt to try to ensure compliance with the law has actually resulted in an increase in vehicle accidents." (One of these reports is the 2006 City of Winnipeg Audit re:increase in rear end collisions.)

San Jose police conducted a special 39-week evaluation of traditional enforcement efforts. A total of forty-one officers were divided into zones containing areas with the highest accident rates and were directed to conduct a highly visible intersection ticketing blitz. The rate of accidents attributed to red light running during normal working hours was found to be 0.6 crashes per week. Evenings and weekends 0.3 crashes per week, consistent with lower traffic volumes.

"By national standards, our injury crash rate is approximately fifty-percent of the rest of the country -- an indication that with the limited staff we have in traffic enforcement that we're actually being quite effective and efficient with our efforts as they stand," Anders said. "Certainly (there is) always an opportunity to do better."

A written report filed by Police Chief Robert L. Davis explained that implementing a red light camera program would require diverting officers away from crime-fighting duties into a laborious vendor selection effort with all of the contracting paperwork needed to document the process. Once the program was operational, he would have no choice but to divert Special Enforcement Team officers away from duties such as conducting DUI roadblocks to spend on the citation review process.

The deputy chief related that he would rather have more human resources in public safety roles beyond just traffic enforcement saying that the traffic division has already been doing its part to meet the city council's goals, increasing the total number of traffic citations issued by a third to 36,651 last year. Money could be better spent buying more of the new electronic citation-writing equipment that had dramatically boosted productivity, Anders said. The force also expects to add three more officers to ticket-writing duties by January 2009.

However of course, despite the three-year decline in the city's traffic accident rates and the boost in ticketing, Councilman Sam Liccardo was not ready to give up on what he called the potential for "cost savings" from red light cameras. (Or should we say $$$$revenue$$$$) He asked the department to conduct another report, this time focusing on the experience of nearby cities with active red light camera programs. The committee will discuss the report at the next meeting following the report's completion.

How funny is that? The police are making the roads safer and writing plenty of tickets, but the council, much like our own have dollar signs in their eyes.

Safer Streets? Yes...In San Jose, at least for the time being.

View the San Jose report here. **If it doesn't open then right click on the link and save the link to your computer.

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View other independent reports regarding Photo Enforcements negative side effects.

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