ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Saying that the city's red light camera program was a drain on Rochester's poorest neighborhoods, Mayor Lovely Warren announced Thursday that the six-year experiment is over.
More than 30 intersections in Rochester are equipped with the red light cameras, which snap an image of the license plate of each car that illegally runs a red light. The city previously cited statistics showing that the cameras reduced accidents at those intersections.
Warren announced she is submitting legislation asking that when the contract with the city's red light camera operator ends Dec. 31, the program will end for good.
"People may be innocent and they don't know," Rodriguez said. "They said I didn't stop, I stopped. I came here and had a hearing. The judge saw I stopped and throw it out."
Wifredo got three red light violations, while his girlfriend got one.
"People don't have too much money," said Rodriguez. "I'm on SSI. When I get a ticket like this, $50 dollars, I can't afford to pay $50 dollars."
"I cannot in good conscience wage a fight against poverty while also imposing burdensome fines that have a disproportionate impact on people living in poverty," said Warren, D-Rochester. "It just doesn't make sense."
City leaders said many of the red light violations went to collections because many people could not or would not pay. They add the program collected around $800,000 to $1 million each year.
Warren says the results of a recent study about the red light camera program were inconclusive. It worked at some intersections, not at others.
Warren says it is, of course, still illegal to run red lights. She's counting on police to continue enforcement.
Our officers are going to do vehicle and traffic violations as they come across them," said Deputy Chief Scott Peters, Rochester Police Department. "What I'm ultimately hoping to do is as we start to get more officers out on the street, I'd like to beef up our Traffic Enforcement Unit to some of the numbers they were before."