BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In Buffalo's University District, speeding and red light running is a major concern. That's why councilmember Rasheed Wyatt decided to hold a public hearing on possibly bringing red light cameras to the city.
"We have proposed something to establish red light cameras. In the past this has been brought forward but we haven't had any community dialogue. So, we wanted to do this in a more appropriate way to number one: educate the residents of the city of Buffalo as to what red light cameras do what their capabilities are," Wyatt said.
Wyatt brought in Dorian Grubaugh of GATSCO USA, a company that manufactures and installs red light cameras, to explain how the system works. Grubaugh said after installing the system, GATSCO will assist the city in collecting fines from the tickets.
"Once law enforcement has viewed that violation and says, 'yes that is approved for citation' then we will mail out the citation, we will assist the city in the fine collection, the court processing, as well as customer service" said Grubaugh.
That didn't sit well with some residents.
"You can talk about safety all day, none of this red light camera data shows that it makes any city safer," said James Rust.
Last year, the city of Rochester got rid of its red light program, from a different company, after complaints it unfairly targeted people in the poorer part of the city. Still some Buffalo residents say something has to be done about the speeding in the city.
"What I would like is more detail about is how will this really benefit in terms of preventing the kind of car accidents that are occurring," said Thelma Roberts, resident.
Despite the opposition to the red light cameras, Wyatt says he'll continue to explore idea.
"There are still area of our city that are very dangerous when it comes to traffic signals and traffic locations. So, I want to still hear from my folks, I do still get information from Facebook, from people, but I'm still going to listen to the other alternatives as well," said Wyatt.
AAA supports red light cameras, but only to increase safety, not revenue.
The company released a statement saying, in part:
"AAA believes that red light cameras have the potential to increase traffic safety when used responsibly with engineering measures, educational campaigns, and traditional law enforcement, provided that a thorough evaluation of such programs is regularly conducted and disclosed to the public. "