Neighborhood Group Favors Scrapping Traffic Cameras

A local neighborhood council has backed the Police Commission’s vote to end the controversial red-light camera program at the end of the month, as the .

At the Midtown North Hollywood Neighborhood Council meeting on July 13, the board unanimously voted to support the Police Commission’s June 7 vote to end the program, which has cameras installed in 32 intersections in the city to catch motorists running red lights. The neighborhood council submitted a community impact statement to the city on Wednesday.

Mary A. Garcia, the council’s president, said that she doesn’t think that the program makes city streets any safer.

“Some people anticipate it, because the numbers are counting down, and they either try to get past it, or they suddenly stop,” she said in a phone interview Thursday. “I really don’t want to be one of the ones that stops in that case.”

The money that is used to fund the program should go toward extending the yellow portion of the signal instead, she said.

The red-light camera program costs the city $2.7 million a year. Los Angeles’ contract with American Traffic Solutions, the Arizona-based company that runs the program, will expire on July 31 unless the City Council votes to extend it before then.

A motion authored last month by Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents a portion of North Hollywood, to extend the contract on a month-to-month basis starting on Aug. 1 was shot down by the . The motion needed eight votes to pass, and the council voted 7-5. However, a motion by Councilman Paul Koretz to study the timing at traffic signals to improve safety passed. 

"It is wasteful to immediately dismantle an infrastructure that is already in place," Cardenas said after a council meeting on June 21.

Two other councilmen who represent parts of North Hollywood, Paul Krekorian and Tom LaBonge, were split on keeping the program.

Krekorian voted against extending the contract, saying that the city should spend the money on "proven technologies," while LaBonge was in favor of keeping the program while the city studied how to improve it.

Cardenas' motion to end the program will be discussed next week: on Monday at a meeting of the council's Budget and Finance Committee, and on Tuesday during the Audits and Governmental Efficiency Committee meeting. If it goes to the City Council by the end of the week, the Police Commission's decision could possibly be overturned.

Last week, the City Council adopted a resolution, also presented by Cardenas, to support a Senate Bill that would modify the current law with red-light photo programs. A main point of contention with the program is that judges do not actively enforce the $446 tickets that are generated when a camera catches a traffic violation. The council agreed to back the bill if it is amended to improve the enforcement of unpaid citations. 

Cardenas, Krekorian and Councilman Herb J. Wesson all received a $500 campaign contribution from American Traffic Solutions in the past year.