Most of Chattanooga's speed cameras will be gone by 2017

Staff photo by Doug Strickland
A vehicle passes a traffic camera on Germantown Road on Friday, June 19, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Staff photo by Doug Strickland A vehicle passes a traffic camera on Germantown Road on Friday, June 19, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Dale Cook stands in the home he's lived in for 20 years on Germantown Road and shifts from foot to foot with just a hint of indecision.

He's against unmanned, automated speed cameras in theory, he explains. Really, he is. He thinks the ticket machines circumvent due process when they snap a photo of a speeding vehicle's license plate and then deliver the citation by mail. You ought to be able to face your accuser in court.

But, he adds, just a bit chagrined, they sure are effective.

"As a resident on this road, I love the result," he says, and chuckles. "There are a lot fewer people flying down the road. So on the whole I have to say I like them. Which goes against some of my principles - maybe my principles aren't that strong after all."

Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill in April that bans the use of all unmanned speed cameras on Tennessee roads except the cameras on Hixson's S-curves and cameras in school zones throughout the state. Sen. Todd Gardenhire helped push the bill through the legislature with much the same logic Cook holds to, at least in principle.

Chattanooga's speed cameras will be discontinued as the contracts between the city and the camera vendor, Sensys America, run out. The cameras on Barton Avenue already have been disabled, but the others won't be taken down until March 2017.

The city earned about $155,000 from speed and traffic cameras in 2013, and another $681,000 in 2014, according to city financial reports. In those two years, Sensys America earned $1.5 million from the cameras, records show.

photo Staff photo by Doug Strickland A vehicle passes a traffic camera on Germantown Road on Friday, June 19, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
photo Number of speed camera citations by year.

The city's revenue was earmarked for driver safety initiatives, including the salaries of four officers, educational programming and traffic safety support staff, said Blythe Bailey, administrator of the city's transportation department.

Part of the city's educational programming has been a five-week defensive driving course, said city spokeswoman Lacie Stone. The city subsidized the program, which typically costs $419 per person, so that drivers aged 15 to 22 could attend for a $50 fee.

That program will be discontinued, Bailey said, and the city's staffing level will also be adjusted.

"For increased safety on our roadways, it is a valuable and worthwhile program that makes our streets safer but, with recent legislative changes, we will have to adjust our educational programming as well as staffing to respond to the changes in funds," Bailey said in a statement.

Stone said the transportation department and Chattanooga police will work together to come up with other sorts of educational programming to replace the defensive driving course, and money from the cameras will continued to be used for driver safety initiatives until the cameras are shut off in 2017.

Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said he expects police will need to step up in-person speed enforcement after the cameras are removed, although it will be impossible for officers to match the relentless, 24/7 enforcement the cameras dished out. During 2013 and 2014, the city's speed and red-light cameras issued 52,153 citations.

"Patrol officers' primary responsibility is answering 911 calls," Fletcher said. "And they can only do [speed enforcement] when they're not responding to calls."

But the department is working to roll out e-ticket machines, which will automatic much of the ticket-writing process, he added.

Hixson resident Misty Handley lives near a speed camera on Norcross Road. She not only wants to keep them, she said, she wishes the city could add a second camera on Norcross.

"The wrecks we've seen," she said. "Motorcycle wrecks, deaths, cars flipped over, police chases - it's been bad. But since we had this camera, we've had nothing."

Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.

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