Mesa will keep traffic cameras

MESA — Mesa’s traffic-camera program will remain in effect for at least two more years, the City Council has decided.

But the Police Department promised significant changes to improve relations with people who get cameragenerated tickets, to enhance schoolzone safety and to reduce the number of speed-camera vans that seem most irksome to drivers.

And in another year, the council will discuss the program’s costs and effectiveness before deciding whether to extend it further.

“We have the opportunity to make this program a model not only to the state but maybe to the country,” said Councilman Alex Finter, who in the past has been skeptical of its efficacy.

Police Cmdr. Bill Peters said the program has helped reduce crashes and Police Department costs since it was approved in early 2006.

At that time, Mesa had just seen a horrific year of 64 traffic fatalities, including that of Sean Casey, a Rhodes Junior High student, who was killed by a distracted driver as he crossed Baseline Road with the light in September 2005.

Rhodes is now one of three Mesa junior high schools with traffic cameras, which Peters said have greatly reduced speeds in those areas.

Crashes at intersections now monitored by cameras dropped from 694 in 2005 to 370 in 2010, Peters said.