Colorado lawmakers on Monday gutted a bill that would have banned red-light traffic cameras, following an outcry from several mayors who called the devices an important law enforcement tool.
“At a time when we have deepening concerns over hit-and-run drivers, impaired drivers, and traffic calming in neighborhoods, it makes no sense to eliminate a law enforcement tool that has increased traffic law compliance and reduced accidents,” said an open letter from nine mayors, including Denver’s Michael Hancock.
Senate Bill 181 would have banned local municipalities from using automated vehicle-identification systems that pinpoint drivers. Along with red-light cameras, the measure included photo-radar cameras that detect speed.
But a late amendment that narrowly passed through the House Veterans & Military Affairs Committee stripped the contentious bill and turned it into a study of whether the state should ban red-light cameras. However, the bill could be amended again to its original form in a House Appropriations Committee, where it is headed next.
Some lawmakers had criticized red-light cameras as little more than moneymakers.
House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, the House sponsor of the measure, said red-light cameras impart “a sense of security that doesn’t even exist.”
“If someone’s going to run a red light, they’re going to run a red light,” Ferrandino said in testimony Monday.
His statements were backed by Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher, who testified before the House committee Monday. He said there’s no data showing Denver’s cameras have any tangible safety impact. Gallagher, who was neutral on the bill, noted the auditor’s office offered recommendations in a 2011 audit to Denver police to have the department study the the impact of red-light cameras. That analysis has never taken place, Gallagher said.
At the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Lincoln Street — which had the highest number of crashes before installation of cameras — the program has reduced injury accidents by 60 percent, side-impact accidents by 62 percent and the total accidents by 38 percent, according to the mayor’s office and Denver police.
Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee
