Red light camera citations differ in Cedar Hill and Duncanville

by Steve Snyder of Cedar Hill TODAY

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But, the great majority of citations in the area come from Duncanville. Nearly eight times as many. And, that may not be by accident.

Cedar Hill and Duncanville are the two Best Southwest cities with red-light cameras at certain street intersections.

But, the great majority of citations in the area come from Duncanville. Nearly eight times as many. And, that may not be by accident.

In Duncanville, many of the tickets issued based on red-light cameras are for not stopping at official stop lines.

In Cedar Hill, police officers have a good deal of professional discretion as to whether or not to issue citations in such cases.

Sgt. Chuck Woods, the red-light system administrator for Cedar Hill, talked more about how red-light camera “offenses” are handled in that city.

“Duncanville is accepting the violation for people who stop beyond the white (stop) line. But, if people come to a full stop, even if past the white line, if they're not in the middle of the intersection, (we won't cite them),” Woods said. “If it's not something (an officer) would issue a citation for (in person), they won't enforce the camera.

“We allow them the discretion. We reject a great number (of camera violations).”

Otherwise, Woods said, American Traffic Solutions, Cedar Hill's red-light camera operator, could just serve as red-light camera robots, and skip the overview of Cedar Hill police officers.

The difference in enforcement is starkly illustrated by the number of cited violations.

Cedar Hill had 5,855 red-light camera violations in 2008, whereas Duncanville had 43,955, almost eight times as many.

In fact, just two of Duncanville's cameras - those on the southbound U.S. 67 service road at Danieldale Road and Cockrell Hill Road - each had more than twice as many violations as all Cedar Hill cameras combined.

That said, the Duncanville Police Department has looked at the issue itself.

Community Relations Officer Doug Sisk described Duncanville's self-evaluation, first tacking the question of officer discretion versus strict enforcement.

“Officers of the Duncanville Police Department can utilize discretion when issuing red light citations. In terms of the ‘strictness' of enforcement, there is no policy that defines how strict the individual officer will enforce each violation,” he said.

He then said that, since discretion, or lack thereof, does not appear to be an issue, that failure to make a full stop before making a right turn on red appears to be a large part of the problem. However, he did concede that in some cases, the issue of where a driver stopped, rather than a complete stop or not, is the issue.

“In some cases, where a complete stop is made, the issue where the violator stops past the designated stop point and on a cross walk comes into play,” Sisk said.

In addition to having nearly eight times as many citations as Cedar Hill, Duncanville's 2007-08 net revenue on cameras of $954,000 is topped only by the much-larger Dallas and Arlington.

Dallas, with a population about 35 times that of Duncanville, made just barely more, at $1.1 million. Plano, itself much larger than Duncanville, had only about 65 percent its revenue, whereas Cedar Hill, at $202,000, was far lower.

Today also asked Sisk if, given the volume of citations and money involved, whether the police department was investigating its enforcement of this issue. He said the issue had been considered, but primarily for liability issues, no change would be made.

“Our concern was the potential outcome if a policy is created that specifies greater leniency at red lights. State law was created about stop lines and cross walks for a reason,” he said.

“Should the department adopt a system that focuses on red light violations and then implements a policy that permits individuals to violate state law by stopping on/in a crosswalk, what liability would the city possess should a pedestrian get struck in a cross walk because while the vehicle came to a stop, the driver did so working on the premise that it is ‘OK' for them to make that stop somewhere past the designated point?”

So, as Duncanville City Councilman Paul Ford circulates a petition to ban red-light cameras in that city, he now knows where he stands.

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