When a traffic signal turns red, a sensor activates under the pavement in front of the stop line. If a car passes over the sensor after the light is red, running the light, a video is taken to try to capture the vehicle's license-plate number.
The cameras record 12 seconds of video, six seconds before and after the red light is run.
From the video, Redflex draws still pictures of the rear license plates and the faces of drivers.
Salem police officers will review the video of each potential violation and have the final say about who receives a ticket.
Drivers will receive $237 tickets in the mail.
They also will be able to see the video of their violation online, by punching in their citation number at the Redflex Web site.
City will pay firm monthly flat fee of $16,590 for service
April 28, 2007
Red-light cameras have the green light in Salem.
City officials have finalized a deal with Redflex Traffic Systems, the Scottsdale, Ariz.
-based company hired to install cameras at two Salem intersections, Commercial and Marion streets NE and Mission and 25th streets SE.
Salem will pay the company a flat fee of $16,590 per month to monitor the intersections, Sgt. Rusty Morris of the Salem police traffic unit said.
That amounts to nearly $200,000 per year.
The contract will last for one year, with nine years of potential renewals. Redflex will provide annual audits of the program to the city.
The project now is awaiting permit approval from the Oregon Department of Transportation, as both intersections are located on state highways.
Officers hope to have the cameras up and catching red-light runners by late summer, Morris said.
The flat fee could help deflect criticism from people who have worried Redflex would try to increase profits by pursuing more violations if Salem agreed to pay the company on a per-ticket basis.
City Finance Manager Barbara Bauer said that was not a consideration, because Redflex does not have authority to issue tickets.
"The company has absolutely no control over the number of tickets issued," Bauer said. "All they can do is send film.
The police decide who should be cited, based on the evidence. There's no way Redflex can have any impact at all on the number of citations issued."
Instead, Salem chose the flat-rate arrangement because it was cheaper than two other options Redflex offered, both of which charged the city a per-ticket fee, Bauer said.
If there was ever a law that was public safety based, red lights are it.
If that means we have to send an armored car to municipal court every day to pick us the fines..
..GREAT!
Think of it as societal gravy from the turkeys we are about to roast.
This has the apperance of being safety driven, but it is driven by money..
.Excuse me, I mean greed. This is a revenue generator, nothing more.
Sorry I didn't have a chance to follow all your links.
The cameras do not create ANY new laws, they do not take away any rights, they take pictures of those in violation of the law in a PUBLIC place, and will hopefully make area's safer. I have no problem with trying these cameras for a year to catch violators and enhance traffic safety.
We all know there is no shortage of folks who run red lights.
But someone needs to make sure Salem doesn't pull a fast one as Beaverton did a few years ago by tampering with the yellow lights. A judge in Beaverton threw out a lot of citations when it was revealed that Beaverton had shortened the length of the yellow lights by a full second to increase the number of citations.
I believe the rule of thumb is normally one second of yellow light for each 10 miles per hour of speed. i.e.
, 30 mile zone = 3 seconds of yellow light. 35 mph = 4 seconds, ect. Maybe they can set it for less that a second; I don't know.
So I hope someone out there will perhaps check all of these intersections and document the lengths of the yellow light just to make sure the city of Salem doesn't try to pull the same thing. A video camera with a good date/timer would work pretty well I think.
I sent a letter to the mayor some time ago asking her how she felt about this issue and received no reply, so I don't know what they plan to do about it.
Yes, you are correct; I don't trust them to do the right thing when it comes to money.
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