Iowa City Council to talk red-light cameras Monday

IOWA CITY – If Iowa City installs red-light cameras, the money from citations should go toward public safety expenses, the city's police chief and a transportation planner say.

Police Chief Sam Hargadine and John Yapp, executive director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County, also have identified 10 accident-prone intersections where the cameras could be placed.

Whether the City Council will give the green light to traffic-enforcement cameras is to be determined, however. Council members will discuss the matter at a work session Monday.

In interviews and a brief discussion at a previous work session, it was clear the council is divided on the issue. Some said the cameras smack of Big Brother, while others said they thought it was a safety issue.

Most of the council members said they wanted more information before deciding one way or the other. That includes Mayor Matt Hayek.

“I will want to know who else has this system in place, what their experience has been, and a detailed rationale behind any staff recommendation,” he said by e-mail Thursday.

Hargadine is recommending red-light cameras be used but not necessarily speed cameras, saying there is not as compelling an argument for the latter. He said speed cameras could go on Interstate 80 and Highway 218, but unlike I-380 in Cedar Rapids, those highways don't go through the heart of town.

“I think the speed cameras are up for discussion, but I'm absolutely pushing red-light cameras,” he said.

Based on Cedar Rapids' experience, not installing speed cameras would significantly reduce the potential revenue from the cameras. Through February, Cedar Rapids had made $2.3 million on red-light and speed cameras since the first citations were issued last March.

Ninety-five percent of the citations were for speeding on I-380.

Hargadine said public safety is the motivating factor. He and Yapp, in a memo to the City Council, cite a study out of Iowa State University that found crashes resulting from vehicles running red lights decreased 20 percent in Davenport and 90 percent in Council Bluffs where cameras were used.

In Cedar Rapids, crashes citywide dropped by 8 percent from 2009 to 2010, and injury crashes fell 16 percent, according to the Police Department.

Hargadine said Cedar Rapids Police Chief Greg Graham will be at the council's work session.

Hargadine and Yapp said if Iowa City installs traffic cameras, the revenue should go toward the salaries of public safety personnel and for a public safety contingency fund for unplanned expenses.

The Police Department had a position cut for the year that starts July 1, leaving it with 80 officers. Hargadine said the average officer spends 45 minutes to work a car collision that is not related to drunken driving. If traffic cameras reduced collisions, officers would be freed up to do other police work, he said.

In Cedar Rapids, the money is put toward the Police Department's budget, which city officials say is a form of property tax relief. Violators are hit with a civil fine because it's the vehicle owner, not necessarily the driver, who is ticketed.

Hargadine and Yapp also identified 10 potential locations for cameras where from 2001 to 2010 collisions caused by red-light running injured 32 people and totaled more than $1 million in property damage. (See the second page of the document embedded below.)

The cameras have attracted criticism across Iowa, and they were even the subject of a dispute that saw the Iowa Supreme Court rule them legal.

Some state lawmakers talked earlier this legislative session of banning traffic-enforcement cameras, although that went no where. A

bill in the Iowa House would cap the fine for running a red light at $50 and require signs telling motorists of a camera's presence.