From the Arizona Republic:
by Casey Newton – The Arizona Republic
Arizona’s controversial experiment with speed-enforcement cameras on state freeways will come to an end this summer, when the Department of Public Safety allows the program to expire.
The DPS sent a letter to camera operator Redflex Traffic Systems this week, informing officials that their contract will not be renewed.
The 78 fixed and mobile photo-enforcement units around the state will be turned off after July 15. Decisions on when and how the cameras will be removed have not yet been made, Redflex officials said.
City photo-enforcement contracts, which deal with speed and red-light cameras, are not affected by the move.
The program incited vandalism against traffic cameras and even violence since its inception two years ago.
Vandals took Silly String, sticky notes and pickaxes to cameras after they were installed.
Last year, Thomas Patrick Destories was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Redflex technician Doug Georgianni as he sat inside a DPS-owned photo-enforcement vehicle. Destories has pleaded not guilty.
Advocates of the cameras, including some DPS officials, have released studies indicating that the cameras save lives and reduce crashes.
Those studies have been vigorously disputed by camera opponents, who argue that the cameras increase collisions while infringing upon constitutional rights.
In its letter to Redflex, the DPS said that ending the contract represents “a change in the agency’s focus,” said Shoba Vaitheeswaran, a Redflex spokeswoman. The DPS on Wednesday did not respond to a request for the letter, nor would it comment on the issue.”We’re undoubtedly disappointed in the decision,” Vaitheeswaran said.
She cited a DPS study from October that said the cameras resulted in a 19.2 percent drop in fatal collisions, saving 24 lives. The same study said the cameras allowed DPS officers to make more traffic stops and arrest more criminals.
The DPS has scheduled a complete audit of the system’s impact on safety and driving behavior to be completed in the fall. Photo-enforcement supporters had hoped the review would be complete before state officials made any decision about the system.
Opponents of photo enforcement cheered the decision.
“We’re happy that DPS will no longer be violating Arizona citizens’ constitutional rights,” said Shawn Dow, chairman of a November ballot initiative to ban the use of photo enforcement statewide.
Financial motives
Controversy has swirled around photo enforcement on state roads ever since then-Gov. Janet Napolitano included it in the 2009 state budget.
Napolitano envisioned a system of up to 100 cameras that would generate $90 million in revenue a year. She said the program was designed to improve traffic safety, not make money.
But the idea of the cameras as moneymakers drew strong criticism, and they did not meet revenue projections.
The cameras snapped more than 2 million times in an 18-month span from September 2008 through the end of March and issued more than 1.2 million citations.
But only about 30 percent of the citations were paid, generating about $63.5 million in revenue, which went into a fund the Legislature controlled.
Among those who criticized the financial motives of the system was Gov. Jan Brewer, then-secretary of state.
“She did not support the state photo-radar system because it appeared from the beginning to be designed exclusively as a revenue generator,” Paul Senseman, a Brewer spokesman, said in an e-mail.
At one point, Brewer had leaned toward letting voters decide whether to keep the cameras.
But after Brewer became governor last year, she appointed a new DPS director, Robert Halliday, who said photo enforcement’s reputation was damaged from the start after Napolitano publicly touted the program as a revenue generator.
Halliday also wanted an independent analysis of the program’s safety benefits, which he thought were overstated.
Legislative opposition
Even before Brewer appointed Halliday, the program had been the subject of numerous attacks from conservatives in the Legislature.
In the session that ended last week, lawmakers sent Brewer a bill that would ban photo enforcement within 600 feet of a posted speed-limit change, with the exception of a school crossing. It also would prevent a traffic complaint from being filed in court unless a person was personally served with that complaint.
Given the DPS’ move this week, the bill would be moot on state freeways. But it would still affect programs run by cities.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, also would ban people from applying any covering or substance to their license plate that makes the plate illegible.
Brewer has until Tuesday to sign or veto the bill or do nothing and allow it to become law without her signature. The measure, if it became law, would go into effect July 29.
Meanwhile, opponents of cameras are still gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would ban the cameras statewide. The signatures will be filed July 1, said Dow, the campaign chairman. “The cameras are coming down,” he said.
Republic reporter Alia Rau contributed to this article.