Marion traffic cameras issue over 6,500 citations, many still unpaid

MARION — The city of Marion has collected $136,480 in traffic camera citations since the cameras were installed at two intersections last summer, but more than half of the 6,500 citations remain unpaid.

The cameras started issuing citations for speeding and red light violations Sept. 18, after a month of issuing warnings.

The stationary cameras are at two intersections — Highway 100 and East Post Road; and Highway 13 and Highway 151. One mobile camera, which records only speeding violations, is placed based on citizen complaints.

Between Sept. 18 and Dec. 31, the cameras identified 12,588 speeding and red light violations and issued 6,543 citations, Marion Police Chief Mike Kitsmiller said in a Tuesday update to the Marion City Council.

The violations that didn’t receive a citation usually result when a license plate is not fully readable, or the license plate is registered to a different car than the one it is on, Kitsmiller told the council.

Most of the citations — 4,072 — were red light citations, with the remainder — 2,471 — for speeding.

Kitsmiller said many of the red light violations were for drivers who turned right on a red light without first stopping.

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“There was a learning curve for people,” he said. “A lot of people forgot from driver’s ed … that you have to actually stop before you can turn right.”

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About 4 percent of the citations — 279 — have been contested. The registered owner of the car cited was found to not be liable in 28 of those cases.

Reasons for dismissing the tickets include a car having been stolen or someone having left their plates on a car they sold, Kitsmiller said.

“We’ve had a couple of instances where people have dropped their car off at mechanic’s shops and we pick a car up speeding or running a red light when the mechanic is out doing a test drive after they do the repairs,” Kitsmiller said.

“We’ve had to tell those people, ‘Go to the mechanic’s shop,” he said. “We’ll help you show them the ordinance, show them the violation,’ and so far all the mechanic’s shops have ponied the money up to cover the expense of the citation for the vehicle owner.”

Unpaid citations

Since Sept. 18, 2,397 of the citations have been paid, resulting $220,375 in fines, with $83,895 of that total going to Sensys Gatso, the company that installed and maintains the camera.

Red light violations carry a fine of $100. Fines for speeding violations start at $75 for 11 mph over the limit, and then vary upward depending on speeds.

Marion traffic cameras fines

Fines that have not been paid are sent to a collections agency. Kitsmiller said many of the fines go unpaid at first because of an incorrect address. The collection agency is currently verifying addresses on unpaid violations.

So far, 510 people have received two or more citations from the cameras, with one person racking up 12, Kitsmiller said. If someone is a repeat offender with multiple unpaid fines, they can receive a municipal infraction through the city.

More cameras?

Kitsmiller told the city council The may come back to the council in the future with a request to add more cameras. He said the police department is planning to use the mobile speed camera to gather data on areas that may benefit by having a permanent camera.

“One of the things that we see with the mobile unit is we’ve got a couple places here in town that every time we put it out, we get a hundred citations,” Kitsmiller said.

For example, the camera issued 396 speeding citations during the three days it was parked in the 2800 block of 10th Avenue. The average speed of the violations on that street was 38 mph in a 25 mph zone.

Every Sunday, the police department posts on social media where the mobile camera will be during the week. Typically, it is left in one spot for about three days, Kitsmiller said, but he wants to experiment with leaving it for a longer period of time, to see if there are changes to speeding patterns.

It takes about five days for someone to receive a citation after the camera catches an infraction, meaning the mobile camera is already gone by the time someone knows they were caught speeding in an area.

“My plan is, when it warms up a little bit, we’ll start putting the mobile unit out, and we’ll leave it in one location for maybe two weeks straight,” Kitsmiller said. "We have to pull it in and recharge it, but we’ll put it out for two weeks straight and see what that does.

“If we start seeing that that it is having an impact and people are slowing down, that may be one of those locations we come back and say, ‘Jeez, maybe we ought to put a permanent camera out here, just to permanently slow people down.’ ”

So far, the department has deployed the mobile camera 46 times, 38 of which were because of requests from community members. The other times the camera was deployed in areas where police know drivers are speeding.

Kitsmiller said the cameras have saved a lot of time for officers.

He said Tuesday that it takes about 10 minutes for an officer to issue a ticket. So it would take about 400 hours of staff time to issue 2,397 tickets, the number of citations paid in the cameras’ first few months.

“Overall, I’m satisfied so far with what we’ve seen,” Kitzmiller told the council. “I want to get some more data, so I can come back and show you the impact that these cameras are having, good or bad,”

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