5,000 Accidents Caused By Motorists Running Red Lights in Past Year
The Associated Press
HOUSTON, Texas (AP) - The city council is scheduled to vote soon on a controversial plan that would put video cameras at some of Houston’s most dangerous intersections.
The matter will be decided Dec. 15 and the cameras could be installed two months after that, officials told the Houston Chronicle in a story for its Saturday editions.
City Attorney Arturo Michel said Friday that the city decided it can issue civil citations even though the state Legislature in 2003 denied cities the power to issue criminal citations based on camera enforcement.
Mayor Bill White said he favors the cameras.
“The Houston Police Department last year recorded more than 5,000 accidents caused by motorists running red lights,” he said. “People overwhelmingly in our community complain about the lack of enforcement at red lights. It’s a better idea to use technology rather than taking police officers out of patrols to sit at intersections.”
If passed, Houston would be only the second city in Texas with such traffic video surveillance.
The Dallas suburb of Garland was the first municipality in Texas to install cameras at traffic lights in September 2003. Garland’s system issues tickets for drivers caught inside an intersection during a red light but not for actually running a red light.
Nationally, more than 100 cities in 20 states use the cameras, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Some lawmakers are against the cameras, as are many privacy advocates.
State Rep. Gary Elkins of Houston said he expects there to be “overwhelming support” in the upcoming session to pass a law that would prevent Texas cities from using the cameras for traffic-light enforcement.
Randall Kallinen, president of the Houston chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he thinks the cameras infringe on privacy rights.
“We’ve really become a surveillance society,” Kallinen said. “History has shown that any time that surveillance has become a way of life, it becomes abused and used for purposes not intended.”
If passed, police officials said the plan would be to put the cameras at 50 intersections with the highest accident rates.