Are Red Light Cameras Legal In San Antonio
Two San Antonio suburbs plan to continue carmine light cameras in place despite statewide ban
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Leon Valley began operating red-light cameras in early 2018, and recently adopted two v-year extension options on its contract to keep them in place.
File /San Antonio Limited-NewsWhen Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed a bill into law banning carmine lite cameras, constitutional rights activists were practically dancing in the streets.
Non then fast.
Balcones Heights and Leon Valley, the only 2 San Antonio suburbs that utilize the automated traffic enforcement arrangement, plan to keep clicking away for years to come.
The Northwest Side cities extended contracts with Arizona-based Verra Mobility in time to meet a Legislature-imposed deadline, allowing them to continue using the cameras for the length of their new agreements.
For Balcones Heights, that's 15 years. For Leon Valley, information technology's xx years.
Despite claims by critics that the cameras cause more wrecks because people slam on the brakes when lights turn yellowish, officials in both cities say safety is one of the main reasons they apply the cameras.
"Since the safe cameras were start installed in 2007, traffic accidents at those intersections have fallen by seventy pct," Balcones Heights Mayor Suzanne de Leon said. The urban center has 12 cameras. "The positive impact on pedestrian safety on heavily trafficked Fredericksburg Road and the I-10 frontage roads is immeasurable."
Leon Valley simply started using the organization concluding year, and Police Master Joseph Salvaggio also said there are fewer accidents at the 14 intersections where cameras are installed, many of them along Bandera.
Comparing nine-calendar month periods before and after installation of the cameras, Leon Valley figures evidence a 43 percentage drop in accidents, from 241 to 138, and a 65 percent decrease in "angled crashes," from 48 to 17.
The systems aren't universally praised by city officials; even in Balcones Heights and Leon Valley, council members accept at times just narrowly approved red-light cameras.
The Balcones Heights City Quango, which decided on a 3-2 vote in 2006 to brainstorm using the cameras, approved two 5-yr extensions March 25, significant the cameras could exist operating until 2034.
The Leon Valley City Quango as well voted 3-2, on May vii — the borderline set by the Legislature — to extend its 10-twelvemonth contract another 10 years, which ways it now runs through May 2038.
Heavy traffic
Salvaggio said his city handles some 60,000 motorists daily along Bandera, by and large from San Antonio and other cities. He said the cameras augment his forcefulness, assuasive him to assign officers to other duties instead of monitoring for traffic violators at those heavily trafficked intersections.
At that place were 34 cities using the video surveillance systems in 2017, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. That dropped to 29 in 2018.
Most 50 Texas cities were using the systems in 2011, the height of the trend.
Fort Worth, Austin and Houston are amid the cities that have removed their cameras. This month, Fort Worth used an opt-out provision in its contract, which immune the city to terminate its bargain with Verra Mobility, previously known as American Traffic Solutions, without penalty considering the state banned the cameras. The contract had been scheduled to run through 2026.
But the Houston suburb of Apprehensive, with no such opt-out provision, plans to go along cameras operating through 2024 nether its agreement with the same company.
Red calorie-free cameras have been at the centre of heated argue for decades.
Proponents, including TxDOT and traffic policy experts, contend that they save lives and prevent accidents. Only Abbott and other critics debate that they undermine the public's right to due procedure and cause more than rear-cease accidents from people slamming on their brakes to avoid running a red light.
The photographic camera systems in Balcones Heights and Leon Valley both take review and appeals processes aimed at providing fairness, supporters point out.
Photos or videos are routinely rejected if they are out of focus, do not capture a license plate image or are shot during a funeral procession, officials said. Citations are sent past mail to a vehicle's registered owner, who can contest the commendation or deny liability, naming someone else driving the car at the fourth dimension.
And, truth be known, there'due south non much in the manner of enforcement for cherry-red-light camera tickets. Violations aren't recorded on driving records, and they tin't be reported to insurance companies.
The bill Abbott signed strips out ane more than enforcement tool: Local and state authorities can no longer place a concord on vehicle registration renewals for nonpayment of the tickets. Still, virtually people pay them.
Where the money goes
When critics blasted the cameras as greenbacks cows for cities, the Legislature put a $75 cap on the fine with a maximum $25 late fee in 2007. Earlier then, Balcones Heights had set its fine at $148.
And half of the net revenues generated past cherry-light cameras must go to a state fund for trauma care.
In add-on, Balcones Heights Mayor de Leon said her city'south revenues from the cameras can fund only traffic safety expenditures, "which in Balcones Heights includes two traffic safety police force officers," she said.
Some of the roughly $25,000 per month in net local revenue likewise supports "street and throughway light bills," Lorenzo Nastasi, the city'south director of economical development and public affairs, said in an electronic mail.
In Leon Valley, the estimated $35,000 per month in local revenue generated from the first year of camera enforcement has been used to fund iv traffic officers and improvements to traffic lights and signs.
On June 4, the council voted to authorize a $48,400 allocation from the city's red light photographic camera fund to provide structural security upgrades to its 38-year-one-time City Hall, including bullet-resistant windows, doors and capsule.
It costs Leon Valley more $60,000 per month to lease and operate its 14 cameras.
The future
Salvaggio recently told the quango the number of citations has gradually fallen, from almost 7,000 in March 2018 to but under 3,000 in February.
If that figure keeps dropping, it could hateful an finish to the program. The Austin suburb of Circular Stone abandoned its system in 2016 later on tracking a drop in revenues.
Country Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, said he co-authored the bill, then withdrew his name because he felt the state should allow cities to use the cameras, but with "due process elements" in place.
"I was convinced that despite their problems, they do modify driving beliefs. So I thought we should gear up their issues, not eliminate the technology," Bernal said Mon in a text. "There was a heart ground that no one was interested in."
At last month'due south Leon Valley council coming together, Mayor Chris Riley mentioned hearing "some grumbling about the red low-cal cameras." Only residents have more often than not supported the plan, officials said.
Local resident William Johnson said his married woman got a ticket for running a cherry light and "hasn't washed it since."
"I'thousand much more than careful about timing on intersections," Johnson told the council.
For those who still don't like automatic surveillance, Salvaggio has a simple solution: "If yous desire the cameras to come out, quit running the crimson lights."
Scott Huddleston covers Bexar Canton government and the Alamo for the San Antonio Express-News. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | shuddleston@express-news.internet | Twitter: @shuddlestonSA
Source: https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Two-San-Antonio-suburbs-plan-to-keep-red-light-14004894.php
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