Red-Light Cameras Net City Nearly $1 Million

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The City of Tampa has earned nearly $1 million from red-light cameras installed at several major intersections last fall, TBO.com reports.

Red-light runners have paid the city $3.4 million in fines, budget director Dennis Rogero told the City Council on Thursday. After splitting the revenue with the state and paying the Arizona company that oversees the camera program, Tampa earned just less than $1 million in profit. That's about half the amount the city expects to earn by Sept. 30, the end of the budget year, TBO reports.

The city now has 28 cameras watching 15 intersections. As for the most profitable, according to TBO's story:

City records show the northbound lanes of Lois Avenue at West Hillsborough Avenue had 3,976 red-light runners – more than any intersection monitored. Other high-violation intersections were North 50th Street at East Adamo Drive, North Armenia Avenue at West Hillsborough Avenue, and Gandy at South West Shore boulevards.

The cameras are also helping to reduce crashes, according to Tampa Police Sgt. Carl Giguerre. As TBO reports, "Since the cameras went in, traffic crashes have fallen up to 9 percent citywide and about 16 percent at the intersections under the cameras' view, Giguerre said."