YPD shows off new traffic cameras

July 25, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

City police are using a new tool to help cut down on speed: cameras. Only with these cameras, no one would want his or her picture taken.

The department is using radar guns that will take a picture of a vehicle’s license plate if the vehicle is speeding. Violators will receive a civil citation no later than two weeks after they are recorded.

The information will be downloaded and sent to Optotraffic of Lanham, Md., which will handle sending out the notices. Under the agreement with Optotraffic, the city gets 65 percent generated by the cameras. Penalties are $100 for those driving up to 13 mph over the speed limit, $125 for 14 to 19 mph over the limit, and $150 for those driving at least 20 mph over the limit,

The department began using the cameras last week and, for a month, drivers will receive warnings. Warnings will cease Aug. 15.

On Friday, members of the traffic unit gave a demonstration of the cameras and went to two spots in the city where speeding is a problem: Interstate 680 south just before the Market Street exit; and Cooper Street, where residents have been complaining about cars exiting I-680 speeding for years.

Officer Brian Booksing was operating the camera on the interstate. Within five minutes, he had four cars clocked going above the 50-mph speed limit.

“The third car I hit had a citation,” Booksing said.

When a vehicle is detected going over the speed limit, a picture will be taken and the license plate will be displayed as well as the speed at which the vehicle was clocked. The officer manning the camera then has the option to reject or accept the violation. If the violation is recorded, a citation will be issued.

Officers working the cameras still will issue criminal citations to drivers who are excessively over the speed limit, said Lt. William Ross, head of the traffic unit who was operating the camera on Cooper Street.

Ross said the city recorded 208 accidents on I-680 in 2014, almost all of them caused by speed. He said that if the number of crashes can be reduced by 50 percent, it is estimated the department will save 156 hours – time they can spend doing other tasks.

The cameras also save time for the officers manning speed details, Ross said. He said the time it takes to record a speeder, then pull into traffic and pull the person over, is about 15 minutes. Booksing said it also makes working speed details safer because it cuts down on officers’ having to pull into traffic.

Booksing said once a vehicle is in sight of the camera, the speed will be recorded. There is no time to slow down, Booksing said.

Friday was the fourth time officers used the cameras.

“It’s new technology, and we have to get used to it,” Ross said.

Ross said the cameras will be used in school zones, I-680, state Route 711 and other areas where speed is a problem. Ross said he hopes the cameras, if used enough, can change drivers’ behavior. He said there are not enough police officers or time in the day to work speed details for lengthy periods of time.

“We don’t have enough personnel to stop enough drivers to modify their behavior,” Ross said.