Red-light cameras and photo radar are coming to Tucson as the City Council unanimously approved the new traffic enforcement efforts Tuesday.
The council authorized a one-year pilot program that is designed to catch red-light runners and speeders.
City staff estimated there could be red-light cameras placed at two to four Tucson intersections, primarily ones with many crashes. Possible locations include the East Broadway and East Speedway intersections with Wilmot Road, among others.
When the cameras will be operational has not been determined since the city still has to select a vendor for the program.
The one-year pilot program will include at least one or two photo-radar vans, city staff said. The vans can be moved to problem spots.
They will be placed on the side of a road. The camera inside can take a picture of a driver and the license plate of a speeding vehicle.
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Council members focused their questions at Tuesday's meeting on how the tickets would be issued and the possible errors that could occur with tickets sent in the mail.
Councilwoman Shirley Scott asked whether drivers could lose their licenses because of the tickets and not be aware of it. Councilwoman Nina Trasoff asked what happens if the picture of the driver doesn't match the owner of the vehicle.
Tucson City Court Presiding Magistrate Tony Riojas said the city needs to figure out a way to properly serve people.
Riojas said a person cannot lose his or her license by not responding to a ticket in the mail, adding for that to happen, the person must be served in person.
Under Arizona law, the tickets are not the same as citations given by police officers, said Tucson police Lt. Mike Pryor, who is in charge of the traffic unit. Because a citation must be served in person, tickets issued as a result of the cameras are notices of violation, not citations.
Riojas said the city will have to work with the vendor of the cameras — which has not been selected yet — to figure out the best way to serve violators after they are caught on-camera.
Pryor said the city will be accepting bids from vendors who charge a flat fee for operating the system and those whose fees are on a per-ticket basis.
For the vans and the fixed cameras, all photos are sent to the company that operates the system. It makes sure the photo of the driver and the license plate are clearly visible, then sends the photo to police and an officer reviews it before issuing a ticket.
Riojas said if the driver photographed and the owner of the vehicle are clearly different, the notice of violation will be thrown out. The faces of passengers in a vehicle are obscured in the photos, Pryor said, because police are interested only in the driver.
Pryor said that typically, only about 40 percent of the notices issued using the cameras result in traffic school, a fine or a court hearing. The rest can't be issued for reasons such as the driver's face or the license plate isn't recognizable in the photo.
The cameras do not have the ability to allow notices to be issued to vehicles with Mexican license plates because there is no central, computerized database that enables authorities to determine who the vehicle belongs to, Pryor said.
He said it's the same problem faced by officers on patrol who pull over a vehicle with Mexican plates. Those plates can't be run through a records check to determine if the vehicle is stolen or who the rightful owner is.
The cameras do have the ability to allow notices to be issued to drivers from other states, Pryor said.
There were only three speakers at Tuesday's public hearing.
Councilwoman Karin Uhlich said she felt some residents' fears were eased when they learned the cameras aren't running all the time, but turn on only when a violation occurs.
Resident Rich McKnight, an engineer, told the council the red-light cameras cause more rear-end crashes than they help prevent. He also said the cameras' main purpose is to provide revenue for the city. "It's not about safety; it's all about money," McKnight said.
