Colorado Springs City Council considers photo speed cameras despite questions of costs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A pilot program for photo speed cameras through the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) moved one step closer to implementation after the Colorado Springs City Council's initial vote.
The program would involve the purchase of two speed camera vans and two new civilian employees to monitor those vans. The system would capture pictures of vehicles driving above the speed limit and mail tickets to the owner of the car.
“You can't drive anywhere without having somebody go blowing by you well over the speed limit,” said Commander Pamela Castro with the Colorado Springs Police Department.
Colorado Springs Police said speeding is a major concern among the agency but also residents. The department said there have been 17 traffic deaths this year and many of them are due to speeding. CSPD hopes the program not only cuts down on the speeding but frees up officers to respond to other calls.
“It relieves officers to respond to a burglary, respond to other calls for service, as well as do traffic enforcement in those areas that don't qualify by the state statute,” Castro said.
However, there are some concerns about the cost to taxpayers. The City of Aurora has a similar pilot program, which has cost the city over $600,000 and only made around $75,000 in revenue from the citations. CSPD said it reached out to Aurora to ask why it didn't work but it never received a response. But the agency said programs in Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins have worked.
Some city council members voted against the program, because CSPD said it doesn't yet know how much the program will cost.
“That would be putting the cart before the horse and it'd be inappropriate to talk about," Castro said about the cost of the program. "I don't have those numbers.”
"We are going to lose money doing this," said City Councilman Mike O'Malley "But if its for public safety, I can get on board with that. But I can’t get on board with the numbers you presented.”
However, other council members are more focused on how the program can improve resident safety.
"It's our citizens taxpayer dollars, so we are cognizant of that and we're very stingy with that," said City Council President Randy Helms. "But this is one that we believe our police department has come to us and says we want to try this. I want to do everything I can as an elected representative to improve the safety of our streets and of our citizens."
These speed cameras would be set up inside a van and would work very similar to the red light cameras throughout the city. However, according to state law, these speed cameras can only be placed in certain areas, like residential neighborhoods, construction zones, near parks and school zones.
CSPD did point to the red light cameras as a system that works and why they believe the speed cameras will also be cost effective. Last year, the red light cameras brought in about $1 million in revenue.
The city council voted in favor of the program 7 to 2 on Tuesday. The final vote will take place on May 14.
