Tomball’s camera program is in red
City’s system to nab traffic scofflaws has racked up deficit of $1.9 million
Rather than generating revenue, Tomball’s redlight camera program has racked up a $1.9 million deficit in the collection of fines from violations.
The deficit was revealed during an audit of the program that was conducted by Redflex Traffic Systems, which manages the program for the city.
“We do have a large number of uncollected redlight camera violations,” said City Manager George Shackelford.
Last month, Shackelford revealed to the city council that the red-light camera fund was “struggling” and not generating very much revenue from the fines incurred when someone runs a red light at one of four monitored intersections.
Red-light camera violations are considered a civil matter, and not a criminal matter. As a result, a criminal warrant is not issued for non-payment so those who are running those lights are opting simply not to pay the associated fine, which is $75 per violation.
“I was very shocked by the amount, that we have $1.9 million in outstanding collections,” said Councilman Mark Stoll, who asked why the consequences for electing non-payment were not in place. “To me, this should be an equal program for everyone, whether we chose to enforce it, whether we choose to get rid of our red-light cameras, or if we check other matters for collections. Everyone should be on the same level playing field.”
The red-light camera system has been an active part of traffic safety enforcement since May 2008.
The city of Tomball recorded 626 traffic accidents in 2007, the year before cameras were installed.
As a result, discussions about the importance of better traffic management led to the installation of red-light cameras at eastbound and westbound FM 2920 at Business 249 — known by many in the community as Four Corners — and northbound Texas 249 at Zion Road.
Since 2010, a total of 53,922 prosecutable violations were captured by the cameras, which is an average of 10,784 per year, according to Tomball Police Department figures.
In 2012, which marks the year of the most violations were recorded, a total of 12,656 prosecutable violations were captured.
This was followed by a 30.8 percent decrease in 2013 with 8,758 prosecutable violations, followed by a 14.9 percent increase in 2014, with 10,062 prosecuted violations captured.
“I am fascinated by the whole process and just how lenient the city of Tomball is,” said Tomball Police Chief Billy Tidwell said, who was sworn in as chief of police in December. “Quite frankly it’s not what I expected to see.”
The Tomball Police Department has two officers who review the videos that are channeled from Redflex, which is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Tidwell said that when a citation is mailed out, the violations are blatant offenses.
While many are simply not paying the associated fine, others are appearing and using the appeal process, which Tidwell also called “very lenient.”
Tidwell described the first appeal process he witnessed in Tomball where a woman claimed to have run the light because her child was choking on a French fry.
“She said, ‘I really didn’t have time to stop.’ We dismissed the ticket. We didn’t ask her to bring the French fry in, but we did dismiss the ticket,” he said. “It wasn’t the process that I’ve imagined over the years and that I’ve heard about.”
One of the remedies discussed was implementing the Scofflaw Act, also known as the Texas Scofflaw Act, which allows a municipality to contract with the county tax assessor collector to prevent the registration of a vehicle by anyone who has unresolved traffic fines or warrants with the municipality.
In other words, a violator would not be able to reregister their vehicle until they resolve their outstanding warrant or fine.
“From my perspective, (the use of red-light cameras) is about modifying driving behavior. That’s what we do to lessen the number of accidents,” Tidwell said. “If I violate the law and there is no consequence for that, then we’ve modified nothing.”
At this time, more than 60 cities in Texas using the Scofflaw rule to enforce traffic warrants and fines.
Like Tomball, they have found themselves in a situation where violators are not resolving their traffic citations and the cities lack the manpower necessary to serve the resulting volume of traffic warrants.
Sugar Land and Texas City use the Scofflaw Act to enforce their traffic warrants and fines.