Daily News Editorial: Police Commission's right; it's time to put brakes on L.A.'s red-light cameras

THE Los Angeles Police Commission went against the wishes of LAPD leaders and voted this week to shut off the city's controversial red light cameras.

We applaud the decision. We urge the City Council to accept it and look for other ways to make intersections safer.

It is not clear if the cameras, put in place starting in 2004 to catch red light runners at 32 L.A. intersections, have prevented many traffic accidents. It is clear they haven't prevented an ugly collision between good intentions and politics.

The idea might have won wider acceptance from the public if the cameras were installed at the riskiest intersections, if motorists caught blowing through stop lights or making illegal right turns paid the price, and if the program were paying for itself.

But the cameras were arrayed so that each of the 15 council districts got at least one, ignoring some notorious intersections, an example being Hayvenhurst Avenue and Nordhoff Street in North Hills. The nearly $500 fines often go unpaid, because courts and the Department of Motor Vehicles don't pursue holdouts. The program operates in the red to the tune of at least $1million a year.

Of course, safety is the No. 1 concern. But while the LAPD and the camera's peddlers quote data showing the cameras help, opponents cite less

conclusive evidence. And many skeptics believe the cameras even cause rear-end collisions by prompting drivers to stop abruptly.

In its action Tuesday, the five-member citizens commission that oversees the Los Angeles Police Department unanimously rejected the department's proposal to renew the contract with the Arizona-based company that runs the cameras.

City Council members could override the commission on this; hopefully, they won't.

Recently, an advocacy group called Safer Streets L.A. came out with a report suggesting the city could achieve its safety goals through simpler measures, like extending yellow lights and implementing "all-red" phases (in which lights would be red in all directions for a couple of seconds to clear the intersection).

That and other ideas are worth considering.

We hope everybody involved will look both ways before going on from here.

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A Los Angeles Daily News editorial. To read more editorials from the Daily News, go to www.dailynews.com/opinions.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18233608?source=rss

Victoria Pratt Diora Baird Dido Shakira Rihanna