City Leaders to Hear Report on Red Light Cameras

A Clearwater Police report details the $570,000 in revenue the city's red light camera program has generated, an increase in crashes and a decrease in red light violations.

The report detailing the red light camera program that started in July will be presented at the City Council work session meeting Tuesday, March 5, at City Hall.

City leaders are looking to review the six-month trial program's success. The city could be locked into the contract for another two and a half years or have to pay a fee to get out of it. Success is dependent on a 15 percent decrease in violations and the program is cost neutral.

The if city leaders decide to cancel the contract by July 1, according to city records.

The system has helped police in criminal and crash investigations and is financially self sustaining, so far, according to the report.

Red light cameras are at the following locations:

• eastbound Gulf to Bay at Belcher Road
• westbound Gulf to Bay at Belcher Road
• eastbound Chestnut Street at Ft. Harrison Avenue

The . Red light camera violations come with a $158 fine.

About $300,000 went to the state, $201,000 to the city and $72,000 for the employees who oversee the program. Clearwater pays Redflex $13,000 a month.

The cameras were installed in July 2012 when warnings were issued to violators. Red light running violations at intersections with cameras have decreased each month since fines started to be issued with an exception in December.

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Intersections with red light cameras have seen a rise in crashes, according to the report. However, officials are not pointing to the camera program as the culprit to the increase.

“Impact on crash occurrences is inconclusive,” according to the report. “It’s difficult to correlate red light camera enforcement to any increase or reduction in the crash activity based solely on the number of crashes and minimal sample size available for this analysis.”

Related coverage:

• Red Light Camera Revenue Tops $570K in Clearwater
• Red Light Cameras Could Get Repeal in Clearwater
• Crashes Increased at Red Light Camera Intersections