City of Pasco reviews vendor for red light cameras

At Monday night's city council meeting, council members reviewed information from the vendor that it would likely use to purchase and install red light cameras.

In August, city council approved a plan to install red light cameras at just two intersections in the city, 20th Ave at Court Street and Road 68 at Burden Boulevard.

"Those intersections, as we found in checking with our engineering department are the highest crash intersections that we have in the city," said Police Chief Bob Metzger. "So, it is a real safety concern. It's not about revenue, it's about safety, and how can I (improve safety) effectively without trying to station an officer out there."

Metzger says the lack of good shoulders and high traffic volumes make it unsafe for officers to pull over vehicles that run red lights at those intersections.

He says the city will not make any adjustments to the length of the yellow lights as some cities have done in the past.

He acknowledged that there have been cases of cities, namely Chicago, involved in scandals related to red light cameras, but he said the people responsible for doing so are in jail.

Metzger also said they're not removing the human element from the process of issuing tickets.

"We think of red light cameras as the camera is taking a picture, and then you're getting a ticket. That's not really the way it goes. The camera does take the picture, but then an officer reviews it and determines if a citation is going to be issued. And then if a citation's issued, that's when it's sent to the person."

If council approves Redflex as the vendor for the red light cameras, installation isn't expected to be complete until March at the soonest.