Say cheese: Y-S traffic cameras are staying put

Red-light camera programs in Yuba City and Marysville will continue after a Southern California court ruling that an automated enforcement system there violates state law.

"We believe our contract complies," Sgt. John Osbourn of the Marysville Police Department said of the city's agreement with Redflex Traffic Systems of Arizona for the camera programs that operate at three intersections.

Lt. John Buckland of the Yuba City Police Department said its red-light program, also with Redflex, has survived several legal tests.

The ruling by the appellate division of the Orange County Superior Court found that the city of Fullerton's contract with the Rhode Island-based Nestor, Inc. ties payments to re enues generated by the automated enforcement system.

That violates the state vehicle code, the Orange County court stated in its ruling last month.

Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead said Monday that the city disagrees with the ruling. Bankhead, who served in the city's police department from 1957-88 and retired as a captain, praised automated enforcement systems as reducing the number of traffic accidents.

"I don't consider the revenue," he said of traffic fines generated by red-light programs.

Osbourn said that since the city began its program three years ago, "We've seen a large, double-digit drop in the number of injury collisions."

Such accidents totaled 45 last year, he noted, while 150 injury collisions occurred in 2002.

"It's a much safer city," the sergeant said.

The collision figures, however, are citywide, and do not reflect only those intersections enforced by red-light cameras.

Osbourn said Marysville's photo enforcement system generated 13,028 traffic citations in 2007.

Dixon Coulter, administrative services manager for Marysville, said in September that the red-light camera program brings in about $700,000 annually and that the city pays Redflex about $300,000 to operate the system.

Cameras in Yuba City are at intersections with significantly less traffic, Lt. Buckland said, and a peak month for the municipality is about 180 citations.

Officers review the camera programs and use their discretion when determining if a driver violated the law, he said.

They ask themselves, "If I was watching this, would I write the person a ticket?" Buckland said.

The camera program is for public safety and "is not a revenue generator and it never will be," he said.

Attorney Jud Waggoman of Marysville said the Southern California ruling can't be cited as a precedent, but gives motorists challenging traffic tickets "another arrow in their quiver."

Osbourn said a copy of the Orange County decision has been sent to the city attorney for review.

Contact Appeal reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmcarthy@appealdemocrat.com.