The City's new red light cameras are certainly garnering a lot of attention in the media and in conversations around town lately. I was asked an interesting question the other day that is worthy of sharing here.
"How far do I have to slow down not to get a red light ticket?"
Of course the immediate technical answer is to reply the statute calls for a driver to stop, not just slow down. The reality of the situation is we find police officers will not cite a violator if they come to a crawl before turning on red - a numeric measurement of 2 MPH is often added to the conversation, but I will bet you officers are more tolerant than that. However, I want to add another dimension to this public discussion and give you something else to consider.
How far would you slow down if a police officer was standing there on the corner to enforce the statute as you cruised through the red light?
Reviews of thousands of videos capturingthese violations show vehicles failing to stop or even slow down to a reasonable crawl. They go through the intersection at speeds we would not likely see if an officer was standing on the corner and visibly engaged in enforcement activities.
We are going to use sound judgment when reviewing these videos to determine if a violation occurred. We ask drivers to imagine a police officer is standing on the corner and thus use the same sound, reasonable judgment when you decide how fast you are going to travel and call it a stop. That's how fast stopped is.
- Asst Chief Bill LePere
Thank you Mr. Smith for sharing your comments. The fact of the matter is simply this - we send out violation notices to vehicles deemed to have run the red light and thus violated the ordinance and state statute. Who the registered owner of the vehicle is has no bearing on whether the violation notice is sent.
Posted by: LPD Asst Chief Bill LePere | June 08, 2010 at 05:35 PM