Iowa City moving forward with traffic-enforcement cameras

The City Council in Iowa City wants to learn more about red-light and speed cameras, but cameras won't be installed just yet.

Instead, a council majority asked at a work session Monday for more information on traffic-enforcement cameras and speeding and crash data at city intersections.

It's not clear if there are the four votes needed to install the cameras, but in what may be a telling sign, only two council members, Regenia Bailey and Connie Champion, spoke against them.

“I just don't like it. … I feel like we're growing into a dictatorship,” Champion said.

Mike Wright, on the other hand, dismissed “Big Brother” complaints.

“I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU, and I do not see a privacy issue,” he said.

The council indicated it would consider red-light and speed cameras separately, and there is enough support for now to continue examining each.

Police Chief Sam Hargadine advocated for red-light cameras, and said he would not turn down speed cameras. Installing the cameras would make the roads safer, reduce property damage caused by collisions and free officers for other work, he said.

“We can't be everywhere at once,” he said.

Hargadine brought with him to the meeting Cedar Rapids Police Chief Greg Graham. Cedar Rapids has had the cameras for a year, with cameras at eight intersections and four speed cameras on I-380, plus a mobile speed camera.

A handful of other Iowa communities also have traffic-enforcement cameras.

Graham said crashes at camera-monitored intersections in Cedar Rapids are down 40 percent, and 8 percent citywide. There were an average of two fatalities annually on the curves on Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids the past several years, but none last year, he said.

“It has changed driving behavior citywide,” Graham said.

Through February, Cedar Rapids had made $2.3 million on red-light and speed cameras, and 95 percent of the citations were for speeding on I-380.

Hargadine and transportation planner John Yapp identified 10 potential locations (see below) for red-light cameras that from 2001 to 2010 had 163 collisions caused by a vehicle running a red light, injuring 32 people. There were no fatalities.

Bailey said she doesn't believe there's enough of a problem to justify traffic-enforcement cameras. She also objected to the amount of time it takes for someone to receive a citation, which Graham said can near a month in Cedar Rapids.

“Catch me and tell me,” Bailey said. “It will correct behavior immediately.”

With various traffic-enforcement camera bills popping up in the Legislature this year, the council likely would wait to vote on an ordinance until after the legislative session ends later this spring.

Council member Ross Wilburn was not at Monday's meeting.

Potential camera-enforced intersections, as identified by city staff:

• Market/Dubuque
• Highway 6/Sycamore
• Jefferson/Gilbert
• Highway 6/Boyrum
• Burlington/Riverside
• Highway 1/Orchard
• Burlington/Gilbert
• Jefferson/Dubuque
• Burlington/Madison
• Burlington/Clinton