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Officials consider use of red light cameras |
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Monday, March 24 2008 |
By CHRIS MEYERS
Staff writer
It likely will be quite a while before anyone gets nabbed by a video camera for running a red light on U.S. 30 through Columbia City, but the idea is being tossed around by city officials.
Columbia City police chief Mike Petersen recently met with a representative of a private company that installs the needed hardware on traffic lights, but nothing was decided and more research needs to be done before the cameras can be placed on traffic light poles.
First and foremost, local officials need to find out from the Indiana Department of Transportation if it would allow the installation of the cameras at the intersections because they would be mounted on poles owned by INDOT, according to Petersen.
Another legal issue is that a local ordinance would need to be changed to allow for the ticketing of drivers recorded by the cameras.
A very preliminary estimate of the program and its costs has been presented to the city council, but they have not made any decision regarding the cameras.
The system would record the license plate of any vehicle that goes through the intersection, and a ticket would be sent to the vehicle’s owner using the recorded plate information.
Petersen said many times those ticketed by such camera systems will try to appeal the ticket by saying they were not driving at the time of the recording.
He said he still has work to do regarding financing for the project. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, March 25 2008 )
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