N.C. Cities Pleased With Cameras' Results

Greensboro and High Point will initiate a program next month that will install cameras at two intersections in each city. Charlotte, Wilmington and Fayetteville already have traffic-light camera programs.

The Chapel Hill Town Council held a public hearing Tuesday to consider placing cameras at several town intersections.

Brooke Groseclose, spokeswoman for the Charlotte Safe Light Program, said the initiative has effectively decreased the number and the severity of car crashes since it began in Charlotte in 1998.

"Crashes decreased by 24 percent at eight intersections during the program's first two years, and the severity of crashes dropped 14 percent," she said.

Drivers caught running red lights are mailed a picture showing their car crossing the intersection and are fined $50.

If there is no response to the citation within 21 days, an additional $50 penalty is issued, Groseclose said. All fines collected are forwarded to the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education.

Groseclose added that citizens can challenge the citations through an appeals process. She said the Safe Light Program has received mixed reviews from Charlotte residents. "Some people are very in favor of it, others are not," she said.

Capt. Gary Cundiff, of the Greensboro Police Department's special operative program, said the department is receiving positive initial responses to its program, which is scheduled to begin next month.

Cundiff said the program is a collaborative effort between the Greensboro police, High Point police and a private company -- Pete Traffic Systems -- which also aided Wilmington's stoplight program. "It's a way of trying to raise awareness to stop at the lights," he said.

Don Carrington, vice president for the John Locke Foundation, a Raleigh-based Libertarian think tank, said the foundation has not yet taken a formal position for or against the programs.

But Carrington cited the possibility that car owners will be wrongly issued citations when they were not the actual drivers of the cars as a potential cause for concern. "You don't want to charge people with something they didn't do," he said.

Cundiff said car owners should be careful to ensure that people who drive their cars will not run through red lights. "It is the responsibility of the registered owner of the vehicle to ensure they have responsible drivers," he said.

Carrington added that pilot programs, such as Charlotte's, are needed to demonstrate the cameras' effectiveness in improving safety and ensuring accuracy.

Groseclose said receiving unwarranted tickets was not likely in Charlotte because car owners can transfer responsibility to another person if the owners were not driving the car when the violation occurred.

Charlotte officials said they are confident in their stoplight camera program, citing decreases in red-light violations.

"Overall, it is an effective program," Groseclose said. "It has done what it was intended to do, which is decrease red-light-running at these intersections."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.