Critics laud Apopka’s decision to stop using red-light cameras Jan. 1

Apopka will stop using cameras next year to snag red-light runners.

To applause from red-light camera foes, the City Council decided unanimously Wednesday it would use an escape clause in its contract with camera-vendor, American Traffic Solutions, and unplug the controversial intersection sentries effective Jan. 1.

“Come December, maybe we’ll try to make a [marketing] deal out of it,” first-year Mayor Bryan Nelson said. “Happy New Year! Come to Apopka, where we don’t have any more red-light cameras!”

But the council’s decision also cuts off a dependable flow of revenue from red-light tickets, which have raised millions for Orange County’s second-largest city over the last decade or so.

A violation based on video from red-light cameras costs $158.

The city’s share of red-light ticket revenue in fiscal year 2017 was $1.33 million — before deducting camera rentals and other costs. The state’s cut was $1.47 million, according to the state Department of Revenue.

“It should be about safety, not money,” said Nelson, who pledged during his mayoral campaign to get rid of red-light cameras. He defeated incumbent Joe Kilsheimer in March.

He said he wasn’t convinced the devices made Apopka safer, citing a recently published detailed analysis of Texas crash data that concluded red-light cameras don’t reduce traffic accidents or injuries at intersections.

Nelson also said he hoped Apopka businesses would benefit financially from the decision to end the red-light camera program as some motorists who had avoided the city would return to shop, eat and rediscover the town.

The city has 20 cameras keeping watch over its busiest intersections, according to its website.

He recounted a story of a smallbusiness owner who had ordered his employees to avoid Apopka if they were driving a company vehicle because of the city’s bevy of red-light cameras.

“He told me, “I don’t know which one of my guys was driving which truck on what day, but I know I’m the one who’s eating the $158 ticket,’ ” Nelson said.

A red-light camera ticket is mailed to the licensed owner of the vehicle, not the driver.

The council’s decision followed appeals from camera foes, including David Leavitt, former Seminole County Libertarian Party chairman, and Glen Chancy, a 2014 mayoral candidate who also had campaigned on banning redlight cameras.

“This is going to be a tough fight,” Chancy said on social-media sites before the vote. “Apopka is the oldest Red Light Camera town in Florida, and the forces backing this scam will not let go easily.”

Apopka police, on the other hand, endorsed red-light cameras as an effective way to change bad and potentially deadly driving habits.

The city’s web page about traffic-light cameras features a police car.

“The City of Apopka is committed to the safety of the community and dedicated to reducing preventable collisions at signalized intersections,” it reads. “The ultimate goal of the traffic light safety program is to change driver behavior. Every driver makes a decision when approaching an intersection where the light has just turned red. Impatient drivers often choose to continue through the intersection, ignoring the law and putting lives at risk.”

Retired Ocoee police Lt. Brad Dreasher, who ran that city’s redlight safety program before retiring, now serves as a representative for American Traffic Solutions. He compared red-light cameras to safety devices in motor vehicles.

“The safety program that has been endorsed by your police department professionals is used not only as a safety tool to catch redlight violators, who break the law and put your community at risk, but it is also used as a crime prevention and apprehension tool as numerous videos have been used to identify criminals, all at no cost to the city taxpayers as this is a violator-funded program,” he told the council. “As you make your decision tonight, I hope you make safety your first priority. Seatbelts save lives. Airbags save lives. And red light cameras save lives.”

In 2007, Apopka became the first city in Central Florida to deploy them and, in fiscal years 2011-12 and 2012-13 Apopka collected more red-light ticket revenue than any Central Florida city, including Orlando, Daytona Beach and Kissimmee.

The city pays American Traffic Solutions $4,250 per month for each working camera.

An Orlando Sentinel tally of ticket data shows Apopka issued 194,545 red-light camera tickets between 2008 and 2017.

At a budget workshop in July, Apopka City Administrator Edward Bass estimated red-light tickets net the city about $800,000 after camera-rentals and other costs are figured in.

Of every $158 red-light-camera ticket, a local government keeps $75 and the other $83 goes to the state.

Nelson said the city, according to its contract, had until Dec. 1 to notify American Traffic Solutions of its intention to stop using red light cameras.

Motorists who receive a violation notice for an infraction committed before the contract ends will be required to pay the fine.