I have submitted this letter to the Tallahassee Democrat today: Over the past couple of months, I have been receiving public record data regarding the City of Tallahassees red light camera program. My original written request (per the citys instructions) was re-written and a majority of the information requested was omitted. I still do not have the total number of red light violation crashes for equal time before the program began. Mr. Allen Secreast has been very decent in his responses and eventually providing most of the requested data. While there are many reasons to dislike the red light camera program, I will focus on one politicians can easily understand: Money. The program since July 2013 has been costing the city money. According to the 2012 audit prepared by City Auditor McCall, the city pays a monthly per-camera fee for the 19 cameras in use, and there is also an employee cost to administer the program. The cost to operate the program adds up to at least $92,000 per month. The ticket totals Mr. Secreast sent me indicate the number of tickets has been steadily falling- and while the reduction appears to correspond with longer yellow light timing mandated by the DOT, I do not have the exact dates for this due to my request for this data remaining unanswered. Regardless of the cause, the fact is if every ticket issued were paid, the city needs 1,239 paid tickets each month just to cover the costs. Since July 2013, the city has not been issuing enough tickets to cover the cost. There were 1,786 tickets issued in June 2013, and only 910 in July. For fiscal year 2013 to date, if every ticket were paid, the city has lost at least $193,000. If the year continues as it is going, the city will lose at least $463,000. If only 10 percent of the tickets are not paid, these numbers grow to $244,00 and $587,000. The city commission should do away with this costly burden that has not been documented to reduce red light violation crashes, violates basic a principle of American justice- innocent until proved guilty, and relies upon a kangaroo court for so-called justice.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 23:43:38 +0000