Red light camera warning period ends Friday

The cameras take a photo of the license plate and driver.

By Trevor Eischen

Published Sept. 1, 2009

Starting Friday, drivers speeding through some red lights will now be issued a ticket with the start of Columbia's new red light camera program.

The cameras are located at the intersections of Stadium Boulevard and Worley Street and of Providence Road and Broadway. The fine for a ticket is $120.

The cameras are unique to cities in Missouri because they not only take a picture of the license plate of a violator, but also capture who was driving the car at the time.

Assistant City Manager Tony St. Romaine has been involved in getting the lights installed. He said the camera's unique technology helps ensure the right person is fined.

"We want to be 99 percent sure that when we send that citation to the individual that was the person that was driving," St. Romaine said.

Gatso USA, the company that installed the cameras, has placed around 45,000 in more than 60 countries.

Gatso USA President Andrew Noble said the cameras ensure law-abiding drivers are not littered with unnecessary and unjustified tickets.

"We do a tremendous amount of work on the efficacy of the technology to ensure we're only capturing violating drivers," Noble said.

Columbia Police Department spokeswoman Jessie Haden said CPD, which individually reviews each offense, would not issue a citation if it were not clear from the photos who was operating the vehicle.

"We're erring on the side of being very prudent," Haden said. "If we don't think that quality is as good as it should be, then we're not going to issue that warning or citation."

To raise awareness about the cameras, St. Romaine said the city is throwing a media event on Sept. 4, which will mark the beginning of ticket enforcement. The red light cameras have been in place for a 30-day testing period and all offenders have only received a warning thus far.

St. Romaine said one problem voiced by critics of the program is the assumption that red light cameras do not promote and enforce safety, but only raise substantial revenue for the police and city departments.

"A lot of critics say, 'Well these are there and you're out there to make money on these things,'" he said. "We're spending thousands of dollars on media awareness right now. We want people to know where these are. We want them to change their driving habits."

Haden said CPD hopes the cameras will improve driver behavior.

"We would love to see not only the number of violations go down, we'd love to see traffic crashes that occur near the intersection go down as well," she said.

St. Romaine said there are an average of five violations each day. Because there are two stoplights in the program, the number of violations doubles to about ten. But, St. Romaine said, as students have returned to campus, the number of violations recorded has steadily increased.

"In one year, typically, our police department would write between somewhere around 330 red light tickets," St. Romaine said. "Within the two or three weeks that we've had just the warning period so far, we've already issued half that amount already."

Both St. Romaine and Noble said 14 more cameras are planned for other intersections in Columbia. Of the $120 ticket, Gatso receives $41. St. Romaine said the rest of this fee goes toward prosecutorial expenditures for court proceedings, and the city accrues the remainder as revenue.