Traffic cameras can catch police, too

Chattanooga Police Detective Terry Topping knows there’s at least a chance he could catch a break if a fellow officer pulls him over for speeding or squeaking by a red light. But the traffic cameras in Red Bank and Chattanooga are not as forgiving, he says.

“We get ’em and we pay ’em,” he said of the $50 camera-issued citations. He paid the fine after a camera at the intersection of Ashland Terrace and Dayton Boulevard in Red Bank snapped him making a right turn on red without coming to a full stop.

If Detective Topping had made the improper turn in his own vehicle, the police department would never have known, according to Lt. David Roddy, traffic division commander and supervisor of the camera program. Because he was in a city-issued car and on duty at the time, not only did he have to pay the fine, he also had to notify his supervisor immediately, Lt. Roddy said.

The department’s traffic division checks call records to determine whether a ticket can be dismissed because the officer was responding to an emergency call. If not, the officer must pay the fine or appeal to a judge, Lt. Roddy said.

Chattanooga City Court Judge Sherry Paty said there have been several cases in which officers were able to provide the proof needed for a dismissal in court.

“They know not to come to me if they don’t have a log of a call,” the judge said. “I had one recently that ran a red light and did not have a log. He just had to pay it.”

The police department turns over the disposition of each traffic case to its internal affairs division, Lt. Roddy said.

“We wanted to make sure that we were held as accountable, if not more so, than everybody else out there,” he said.

If officers fail to pay a citation, Lt. Roddy said, they face action in the court system as well as potential action from internal affairs, which would investigate the incident. Investigations ultimately could result in disciplinary action for charges such as conduct unbecoming, he said.

The division has yet to launch such an investigation, according to supervisor Capt. Mike Mathis.

The department does not maintain a list of how many officers have received tickets, Capt. Mathis said. Paperwork for citations is placed into individual officer’s “supervisory inquiry file” in case a pattern were to develop.

“We might want to be cognizant of the fact that they are driving our car and continually speeding or running red lights,” he said. “We track this in the event it becomes an issue, so we have the documentation.”