60 percent of red-light camera tickets tossed after glitch

By Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 1, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Denver's red-light cameras were anything but picture perfect in their first month of operation.

More than 60 percent of the 2,545 suspected red-light violations caught on camera from the end of a 30-day grace period to Aug. 15 have been tossed out.

The reasons vary, but police said that most of the citations were rejected because the "threshold speed" that helps trigger the cameras was set too low, generating hundreds of false readings.

"The cameras fired, but the picture clearly showed all of the vehicles in compliance," said Mary Dulacki, records coordinator for Denver's Department of Safety.

Since then, the threshold speed was reset to the correct 12 mph, which fixed the problem, she said.

Bill Cowern, transportation operations engineer for the city of Boulder, said the number of citations Denver has rejected isn't abnormally high, especially since Denver's program is so new.

Boulder's red-light cameras had a rejection rate of 66 percent in 2003 and 40 percent this year.

Tickets are rejected for many reasons, from windshield glare that obscures the driver, to a license plate that is hidden by another car, he said.

"We really want to make sure, from an integrity standpoint, that we're only sending out really good quality pictures where we can make out the driver and make out the license plate," Cowern said.

In Denver, police officials expect the city's $838,800 red-light camera system to perform more smoothly in the future, and they chalk up the incorrect threshold speed to kinks that are to be expected in a new system.

But the camera-setting glitch is only the latest in a series for the red-light cameras.

Police Chief Gerry Whitman said Monday that the department is backlogged in reviewing the 12-second videos of suspected red-light runners. An officer has to review each one before a ticket is mailed.

Police have 90 days to issue the citation, spokesman Sonny Jackson said. "Hopefully, we'll get things worked out and cleared up before the 90 days is up, so we don't lose any revenue," he said.

The red-light cameras are projected to generate $1.25 million for the city in 2009.

Delays in the rollout of the cameras already have forced the city to adjust its 2008 revenue projections. City Budget Director Ed Scholz did not have specific numbers available Tuesday but called the adjustment a "minimum amount."

Before the cameras were installed at four busy intersections, the city had to re-examine its plans after a Rocky Mountain News investigation found that all four locations had short yellow signal times that possibly could turn them into ticket traps and magnets for accidents.

As a result, the city increased the yellow signal times by up to two seconds.

Other problems followed. When the city activated the first set of cameras at Quebec Street and 36th Avenue on June 17, a technical glitch caused the data from the first two days to be lost.

Rejection rates

QUEBEC AND 36TH

Go-live date: July 17

Suspected violations: 528

How many rejected: 367

Percent rejected: 69.5

SIXTH AND KALAMATH

Go-live date: July 23

Suspected violations: 627

How many rejected: 270

Percent rejected: 43.1

SIXTH AND LINCOLN

Go-live date: July 7

Suspected violations: 1,390

How many rejected: 341

Percent rejected: 24.5

Stats are from the different go-live dates to Aug. 15. The red-light cameras at Eighth and Speer were activated July 15 but didn't go live until Aug. 15

SOURCE: Denver Department of Safety

• October 1, 2008

  7:41 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  nobodyman writes:

  This should generate much revenue for the city so the cops can get back to doing real police work: shooting deaf, mute retarded children with plastic butter knives.

• October 1, 2008

  8:20 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  AC writes:

  The cameras are useless. Take them out.

• October 1, 2008

  9:01 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Scott writes:

  The main reason for these cameras can be found in the fourteenth paragraph of the article, "The red-light cameras are projected to generate $1.25 million for the city in 2009."

  Scott

• October 2, 2008

  3:02 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Flatlander88 writes:

  Who needs cameras?

  U can make intersections safe - w/o cameras or increasing rearenders.

  A. Lengthening yellows 0.5 sec. = 69% drop in violations (fn2). Cheap to do all over town - reducing running everywhere. Also (fn1)

  Longer yellows reduce severe accidents. "...an increase in the yellow duration of 1.0 sec. is associated with a [crash freq.] of about 0.6, which corresponds to a 40% reduction in crashes." (fn3)

  Do drivers get used to the longer yellows, and run those, too? No! Running stays down. (fn5)

  B. Improved street markings reduced running by up to 74% (fn4) w/o increasing rearenders.

  F88

  1 http://thenewspaper.com/news/04/430.asp (Roundup)

  2 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/avai... Fig 4.1 on p 67

  3 http://thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/04-a... Fig 2-8 on p 2-20

  4 http://thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/05-s... at p 69

  5 http://www.highwayrobbery.net/redligh...

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