Citizen Staff Writer
DAVID L. TEIBEL
dteibel@tucson.com
The Sheriff’s Department is one step closer to its planned camera program for speed enforcement with the selection of 10 sites for fixed cameras.
The Pima County program eventually will include 10 mobile photo and radar vehicles as well as the 10 fixed cameras.
The fixed cameras will be mounted on poles over the roadways.
The $1.5 million plan was approved earlier this month by the Pima County Board of Supervisors. The program will be operated by American Traffic Solutions of Scottsdale, which operates similar traffic cameras for the Tucson Police Department and the state Department of Public Safety.
The sites chosen for the camera systems are high-volume, high-speed and high-collision areas, said sheriff’s Lt. Karl Woolridge, head of the special operations section.
The sites, Woolridge said, are:
• East Valencia Road near South Wilmot Road.
• East Ina Road near North Camino de Fosforo.
• West Ruthrauff Road at North Calle Reina.
• South La Cañada Drive near Duval Mine Road in Green Valley.
• South Mission Road at West Nebraska Street.
• The 4700 block of North Swan Road near East Calle Barrill.
• West Valencia Road near South Camino de la Tierra.
• South Alvernon Way just north of East Stationmaster Drive.
• North La Cholla Boulevard between West Sunset Drive and West Fountains Avenue.
• The 3100 block of East River Road.
The Sheriff’s Department program would be similar to the Tucson Police Department’s and state Department of Public Safety’s efforts to capture images of license plates of vehicles and of drivers who run red lights or exceed speed limits.
The photo system also would be capable of capturing violations of the state’s new ban on plate frames that obscure the word “Arizona” at the top of the license plate, said Lindy Funkhouser, assistant Pima County administrator for justice and law enforcement.
That law went into effect this month and carries a fine of up to $130 per violation.
The program will have three phases, Woolridge said.
A first phase will be a seven-day “warning period” of public education.
An intermediate phase will put the photo enforcement system in place to determine its effectiveness.
The third phase will determine whether to expand the program beyond the initial locations in the unincorporated county.
Citations will be mailed to speeding suspects, and if service of the citation is not acknowledged, a process server will personally deliver the citation, Woolridge said.
He said motorists caught on camera doing 11 miles per hour or more over posted speed limits will be cited, and those going 10 mph or less over the posted limit will not.
Construction of the camera positions, including erecting poles, bringing in electricity and mounting the cameras, is expected to start within the next month and is expected to be finished in time to turn on five of the cameras by April 1, Woolridge said.
10 sites picked for Pima County’s fixed traffic cameras program