After we started writing about traffic-enforcement cameras in our community, we started paying attention to how the cameras were being received around the country.
Every day, my Google Alerts churns up a half-dozen news pieces about cities that are considering cameras, are in the process of getting them or recently got them in place. The dialogue is practically parallel from place to place.
Not in Los Angeles. There, the city, the police and the police commission were at odds about using cameras. The Los Angeles Times reported that the cameras likely will come down as a result, but the decision was put off until this week, at least. There also was an opinion piece with an interesting graphic by their editorial board on the topic.
A similar series of events took place in Huntington Beach. A city official there declined to comment, referring all calls to the police department. Repeated calls and voicemails from me to the police department haven’t been returned — perhaps suggesting that Snohomish County is far from the only place where the cameras have become a sore spot for public officials.
American Traffic Solutions, the Arizona-based company that contracts with Lynnwood, spends a lot of effort on public relations, namely selling the notion that the cameras are a safety tool, first and foremost. That’s a notion we have yet to see backed up by any convincing evidence relevant to our community.
Its president and CEO, James Tuton, penned a column for The Huffington Post last week about how the cameras work. You can read it for yourself here. You can make your own judgments.
Meanwhile, Monroe has kicked on its cameras at three intersections. It’s contracting with Redflex, also based in Arizona. An initiative aiming to ban the cameras there got enough signatures to either change the camera situation in Monroe or take it to a public vote, activists announced Friday.
Monroe’s city council is scheduled Tuesday night to talk about the camera initiative. One of the measure’s backers, Tim Eyman, is hoping Monroe will follow Mukilteo’s lead and schedule a vote.
The camera debate, both here and across the country, is a healthy one.
I’m still curious to see how it plays out.
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