Red light firm may owe Denver some green

Contract clause offers credits for missed violations

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 16, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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Redflex, the company that runs Denver's red light ticket cameras, may owe the city at least $27,900 under a disputed contract clause giving Denver a $25 credit every time it misses a certain number of red-light runners.

The city is looking to renegotiate parts of the contract, which expires Feb. 15 and can be renewed for up to four more years without being rebid.

Denver pays Redflex of Scottsdale, Ariz., $31,920 a month to run the system and, in return, the city's monthly ticket revenue has gone from $6,230 in August to $173,295 in November.

The contract had been loosely enforced until recently, when a Rocky Mountain News open records request revealed that Redflex hadn't been submitting the reports required under the contract. The Denver police did not ask for the reports until the Rocky asked for copies.

Division Chief David Quinones then demanded the information. The company delivered the documents Jan. 5 and met early this week with Quinones, Assistant City Attorney Deanne Durfee and others.

Quinones, Durfee and Redflex officials have failed to respond to repeated requests by the Rocky for comment.

Monthly tabulations

Among the items now turned in are monthly tabulations showing Redflex's system failed to achieve a minimum 98 percent "capture rate" of total red light runners. The city gets a $25 credit for each failure below 98 percent, but no one has kept track of it until now.

A successfully "captured" incident is one in which the cameras produce clear photos and video with the driver's face and the vehicle plate clearly identifiable. Redflex and Denver police routinely toss out citations that don't meet these standards, such as an obstructed plate, sun glare or where the driver's face is hidden. These don't count as failures.

But faults such as camera positioning, unsynchronized flash units, blurry images and the like do count against the credit.

According to Redflex data submitted on Monday to the police department, the system fell below the 98 percent mark every month of operation - as low as 83 percent in August.

Redflex disputes credits

However, Redflex disputes that the contract calls for the $25 credits. In her cover letter to Quinones last week, Jennifer Dwiggins, Redflex's operations vice president, maintained the $25 credit for insufficient "capture rate" was tied to hours of system down-time, which has been only a tenth of a percent below 100 percent.

That claim is contradicted in the contract language, which reads: "The city shall receive a credit of $25 per each violation detected but not captured below the capture rate. By way of example if in one month there are 970 captured violations and 1,000 detected violations, the city would receive a credit of $250 (10 x $25) for that month."

In total since June, there have been 1,116 such failed captures below the threshold, while 14,415 tickets have been mailed out through Dec. 29.

Denver has until Feb. 5 to decide whether it will continue the one-year pilot program.

flynnk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5247

Redflex penalty clause

Denver is supposed to get a $25 credit each time the Redflex camera system fails to capture clear photos of a red-light runner when the rate of missed violations reaches a certain level. Since the system went live in June, here are the total violations missed above that threshold:

Month Total Credit June 38 $950

July 212 $5,300

August 515 $12,875

Sept. 219 $5,475

Oct. 74 $1,850

Nov. 40 $1,000

Dec. 18 $450

TOTAL 1,116 $27,900

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Comments

January 16, 2009

5:41 a.m.

Suggest removal

leroypaula writes:

Leave it up to the city of Denver to have a contract with a company and not know all the info or not inforce all the info.
January 16, 2009

6:44 a.m.

Suggest removal

bfkane writes:

It states that a "capture" must show the license plate and the drivers face, then the city can send a ticket. Now I know to cover my face when I run a red light with a camera. Thanks RMN!
January 16, 2009

6:59 a.m.

Suggest removal

The_KIMN_Chicken writes:

This company seems really shady, we'll never see that money mark my words.
January 16, 2009

10:08 a.m.

Suggest removal

renaldo_phlegm writes:

Forget covering your face; that may be the rule but you'll still get charged. I received a ticket from one of the police department vans in which my front window was completely white from glare and you couldn't see through the window at all. I replied to the ticket saying that I lend my car to others on occasion but can't tell from the picture provided if the driver was a man or woman, much less who specifically was driving the car. I received a note back saying that not being able to identify the driver is NOT a valid reason for not paying the ticket. Most people can't afford to spend a day in court to fight an $80 ticket that doesn't have points associated with it, and it would appear the police administration takes advantage of that fact in ignoring their own rules and regulations.
January 16, 2009

11:16 a.m.

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HopiMedicineMan writes:

As transparent a revenue enhancer as this is, why not expand the video fine process to men wearing their pants below their hips, and to all those whose tattoos resemble mold.
January 16, 2009

9:16 p.m.

Suggest removal

Flatlander88 writes:

That'll soon get turned around the other way, Big Time,
because one of the two parties is a for-profit business, and the other is clueless!

Example: It's just been revealed that that the City of Ventura, California, owes Redflex $1.7 million. See this article: http://thenewspaper.com/news/26/2655.asp

Since the City of Denver manages things so well, it will probably be a lot more in Denver.

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