An extension of up to three months for an expiring contract for the city's controversial red-light camera program was approved Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Commission as it continues to sift through conflicting reports on the system's impact on public safety.
The commission is set to discuss the issue in the coming weeks when the LAPD responds to a negative report titled "Safer Streets in Los Angeles" that recommends scrapping the program in favor of tweaking traffic engineering measures. For example, it proposes lengthening yellow signals and implementing an all-red-light phase to let cars clear the intersection.
That report was criticized Tuesday by the LAPD and the camera vendor, American Traffic Solutions, whose city contract for the cameras at 32 intersections expires April 30. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based vendor is among three that have already submitted bids to maintain and expand the program.
"Red-light cameras save lives," said Charles Territo, vice president of communications for ATS. "Just because you extend the timing of a yellow light, doesn't mean you don't need other traffic enforcement techniques."
The report's author, Jay Beeber, founder of advocacy group Safer Streets L.A., said engineering measures can reduce violations and collisions by at least 50 percent and eliminate the need for the costly system, which has operated at a loss of $2.6 million in the last two years.
"They're signing contracts before studying the intersections," said Beeber, who called for a stop to the bidding process. "It's insane."
LAPD has continued to defend the cameras despite criticisms that the program has operated in the red and that uncollected fines have totaled $7 million to $11 million.
"Saving any life - how do you put a price on that?" said Capt. Tom McDonald of LAPD's Emergency Operations Division, calling the report a "subjective" interpretation of traffic statistics. "At this point, we feel very confident that this is an appropriate program."
There have been no red-light accident-related deaths at monitored intersections compared to the five documented from 2004 to 2006, before cameras were installed, according to officials.
Red-light cameras saved 159 lives between 2004 and 2008 in 14 of the biggest U.S. cities, according to a recent report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a national nonprofit funded by auto insurers. More than 800 lives could have been saved if cameras had been operating in all 99 U.S. cities with populations more than 200,000, according to the IIHS.
While extending the yellow light by about a second reduced red light violations by 36 percent, adding cameras cut violations by another 96 percent, according to the IIHS report.
