INSIDE the Lakeland Police Department

Do I Stop or Be Careful and Prudent?

One of the nuances coming out of the new law permitting photo enforcement of red light running violations in Florida is the "careful and prudent" standard for right turns on red. A full stop is not required for photo enforcement activities. Drivers may roll through an intersection, provided they are careful and prudent, and will not receive a Notice of Violation from our red light camera program.

However, drivers need to understand careful and prudent only applies to photo enforcement and not when enforced by an officer on scene.

The statute for right turns on red still requires drivers to come to a full stop at the white stop bar before entering the designated crosswalk or the intersection itself. Careful and prudent is not the standard here - coming to a complete stop remains the standard.

Confused? Join the club.

Here is the bottom line - you are always safe if you come to a complete stop before turning right on red. After all, it is still the law in Florida. We will use the new careful and prudent standard for photo enforcement of red light running violations at the five monitored intersections. Officers working traffic in the field will still use discretion during their enforcement efforts, but an officer observing a driver rolling through an intersection may issue a uniform traffic citation for the offense regardless of whether the driver was careful and prudent.

It's best to stop before turning right on red.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Red Light Camera Update

The new state statute authorizing photo enforcement of red light running violations went into effect July 1, 2010. This statute preempts camera enforcement to the state, and thus puts all local programs under statutory guidelines rather than municipal ordinances. We completed our conversion process and started enforcement this week in accordance with F.S.S. 316.083. I thought we would take a moment to highlight some key points of RLC information this weekend.

• All violations occurring prior to July 1 have been reviewed and approved for Notices of Violation to be issued. If you committed a violation in June, you should be receiving your Notice in the mail soon.

• Appeals for violations prior to July 1 will use the process outlined in our municipal ordinance by scheduling a hearing before a Code Hearing Officer. We will utilize that process until all appeals for pre-July 1 violations are completed. Follow the instructions on the back of your Notice should you want to schedule a hearing.

• We started reviewing violations occurring on or after July 1 this week and noted approval of those events that are clear violations. Notices of Violation are in the mail at this time and should be arriving soon.

• Right turns on red are now being enforced under the new "careful and prudent" standard rather than the previous standard of stopping at the white stop bar (or at least significantly slowing down when rolling through the intersection). We fully expect to issue far fewer Notices of Violation for right turn on red violations under the new less stringent standard.

• Remember my earlier comment that photo enforcement was now preempted by the State of Florida? Among other things that means the fine amount is now established by the State rather than the City of Lakeland, and so the Notices contain a higher fine - $158 instead of the previous $125 - in accordance with the statute.

We will check in from time to time and keep the community updated on information related to the new red light camera enforcement procedures, but we continue to encourage everyone to Stop on Red and drive carefully.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

How Fast is Stopped?

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

Hearings Today for Red Light Camera Violations

The first set of hearings for drivers wanting to contest their red light camera violations will occur this morning at City Hall beginning at 9:00 AM. A lot of dialog is underway in the midst of these hearings as debate focuses on the number of violations being issued for failing to stop on red when making a right turn. There are a few key points to remember here.

In checking with our Traffic officers who reviewed these cases, the violations were incidents where the driver did not appreciably slow down before making the right turn. What do we mean by that?

The Traffic officers noted that drivers who slow down to such a speed that is almost but not quite a stop benefited from officer discretion and did not get a violation notice. It was those drivers who barely slowed down who ended up receiving a notice. While both examples are technically violations, common sense and reasonable judgment as to what constitutes good or improper driving behavior is in order here.

One reviewing officer told me the cases that are borderline get the benefit of the doubt while those who received a violation notice would have received a traffic citation if officers had been at the intersection. The bad driving and decision to run the red light, albeit during a right turn on red, were that blatant.

So what happens if the hearing officer decides in favor of the drivers today and dismisses the right turn on red violations?

Well, it won't be the first time we lost a case in some type of court proceeding and it certainly won't be the last. The difference here, though, is graphic video evidence of a violation occurring rather than only having officer testimony. We stand by the evidence showing drivers failing to stop before turning right on red and the reasonable decisions by our Traffic officers to issue notices of violation for these incidents caught on camera.

We also understand the concept of due process and a driver's right to contest the charges. It's the system that works in our nation everyday.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Red Light Camera Notice of Violation

I am running a tad behind on reading some of the blogs we monitor everyday, so pardon the delay in this one, but Metroi4News had a post by Darby Critendon that showed what a RLC Notice of Violation looks like.

Thought it was a great idea to show a notice of violation and wanted to share the link to Darby's post - and thanks Darby for putting this on the blog!

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Officer Discretion with Red Light Cameras

I realize that no amount of discussion or explanation on my part here is going to change the minds of individuals who refuse to see red light cameras (RLC) as anything more than government technology intruding into their daily lives. I respect their opinions, though we will forever disagree I guess.

However, a recent comment here from "Rock" prompted me to offer a further explanation into how the RLC process works. He wrote:

 "This is not right cameras doing the work of the officers you are issued a ticket in the mail when an officer would of issued you a warning this is not right."

Officers are afforded tremendous discretion in their traffic enforcement activities. Having been there myself, we use a bit of common sense, a dose of compassion (really, we do), and the importance of enforcement to modify bad driver behavior when deciding whether to issue a traffic citation or a warning.

While it is true that an RLC does not afford the driver the opportunity to offer an explanation in person as to why they ran that red light (sometimes the reasons can be very creative and entertaining, but that's another post for another day), police officers who review the violations do employ discretion when deciding whether to issue a Notice of Violation or excuse the incident. In situations where it is a close call, the driver will more often than not be excused.

The vast majority of RLC events we have reviewed are clear cut violations of the law. Whether an officer was there to issue the driver a traffic citation in person or give a Notice of Violation via the mail, a citation/fine is warranted.

And if you are looking for a financial advantage to receiving an RLC violation, that will only cost you $125 versus a nearly $200 traffic ticket and points on your drivers license.

Something to think about...

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Updated RLC FAQs

With all the attention being given to the Red Light Camera (RLC) violation notices arriving in the mail now that our cameras are live, I thought it might be beneficial to reissue an updated document of Frequently Asked RLC Questions (FAQs).

Perhaps the most commonly asked question we are getting today is how can someone pay their fine. Directions are found on page two of the Notice of Violation that outlines the payment options, which include:

1. Pay online at www.ViolationInfo.com and logon with your Notice # and Pin # shown in the red box on the front of the notice. There is a $4.00 convenience fee.

2. Pay by phone by calling toll free 1-866-790-4111 between 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST. There is a $4.00 convenience fee.

3. Pay by mail by sending a check or money order (payable to the City of Lakeland) using the envelope enclosed with the Notice of Violation. DO NOT MAIL CASH.

Please note that payment is not accepted at the Police Department or City Hall.

Owners can view their violation images and video online at www.ViolationInfo.com using their Notice # and Pin # found on the front of the Notice.

The Notice also outlines two ways someone can contest a violation notice they received. Follow the steps carefully to ensure to you meet the timelines established for contesting a violation.

Of course the best course of action is to come to the complete stop at a stop light. The most common violation we are seeing are rolling right turns on red with the vehicle not even coming close to a complete stop on a red signal. 

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Ensuring Accuracy of Red Light Camera Citations

A Letter to the Editor in The Ledger today told of an incident in which a car's owner received a citation for allegedly running a red light in another community even though the car that was ticketed reportedly had never left the garage. While I cannot speak for the facts of this referenced case, I do feel it is important for the public to understand the process used by LakelandPD to ensure accuracy in our red light camera violations.

Our officers are really the second layer of quality control as the RLC company focuses on accuracy up front. The company rejects violations at the front end of the process if the tag on the image does not match the vehicle make/model on the tag registration check. We never get to see those events. But assuming one slips through, our officers also validate the tag seen in the video and the registration check match. Here is the process they use.

Officers reviewing RLC cases first look at a before and after image of the event to validate the car's positioning at the time the traffic light turns red constitutes a violation. The officers then look at an image of the tag and compare it to the tag run by the RLC company. This is where we ensure accuracy of the citations. The tag on the video image must match the tag listed as being run for a registration check. Errors at this stage result in no violation citation being authorized.

Upon confirming the tag in the photo matches the tag being run, officers then verify the car's registration matches the vehicle caught running the red light. It is only after these steps are completed do our officers view the streaming video to watch the entire violation occur. Officers at that point then determine if a violation occurred or not.

It is important to remind folks that anyone receiving a violation citation in the mail is able to log into the Internet-based system and see their violation, including the tag on the vehicle caught running a red light.

These steps are designed to eliminate as much as possible the chance that an owner will mistakenly receive a red light camera citation. Now having said that, we certainly understand that a mistake may occur. We want to correct any errors caused by us not correctly matching the tag seen in the video image with the tag registration run by the company.

We expect the error rate, however, to be very, very small.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Red Light Camera Citations

The headline of an article in The Ledger this morning reported red light cameras yet to yield any citations. To the casual reader, one might interpret this to mean the cameras have failed to catch anyone running red lights. That is certainly not the case.

We previously posted that citations would be delayed as we send our officers through training to learn how to work the software to review events and determine if a violation occurred. That training was conducted this past Wednesday.

A verbal report at our daily staff meeting this morning indicated almost 1,500 "events" were captured by the red light cameras and forwarded to LPD for review since the cameras went live June 1 at five different locations around the city. An "event" is any incident that might be a "violation" of the red light ordinance. There may be numerous reasons why an event is captured by a camera. It then becomes the responsibility for a police officer to review each event and determine if a "violation" occurred.

There is a specific process that occurs when a recorded event is processed by the company before being sent to LPD for review. That might take a week or so to complete. Once LPD processes the event and determines a violation occurred, the company still has additional work to do before a citation is mailed to the owner of the violation vehicle. It might take up to 30 days to get a citation in the mail from the date of the original event - all told, a reasonable period of time for the work involved in processing events and violations.

Not all events will end up being violations, but talking to some officers who began processing events this week suggests the vast majority of events are found to be a violation and warrant a citation.

To those who were caught running red lights by one of our cameras but think you got away with a violation because you have not yet received a citation, all I can say is stand by - your citation will be arriving at your mailbox soon.

Just be patient with us - these things take time to complete.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Red Light Camera FAQs

With the "go live" date of our new red light camera enforcement program less than a month away, the City of Lakeland has compiled a list of frequently asked question about these cameras.

Follow the previous link to the FAQ document or visit the City's web site to learn more about the red light cameras.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere