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American Morning

Speed Cams Bring in Revenue for the City

Aired August 07, 2001 - 08:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Motorists speeding in Washington, D.C. should smile, you are on camera. Not just our camera, this one bringing you the rush hour live shot from there.

There are new police cameras now, and you may not be aware of them until the ticket arrives in the mail. The new cams are controversial.

Patty Davis reports it is mostly about money.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: This is the amount of violators that we have since this morning.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Photo radar -- the latest weapon in Washington, D.C.'s war against speeders. But critics say it's less about safety than making money.

When this radar, mounted on a police cruiser, detects a speeding car, this camera snaps the license plate. A ticket for $30 to $200 arrives in the mail. The city estimates 80,000 speeding tickets every month, compared to just 10,000 police now write a year. Officials won't say how much the city stands to make, but it could be a multi- million dollar windfall.

LON ANDERSON, AAA MID-ATLANTIC: I hope it's about safety, but it sure has the appearance of being about money. If the 80,000 per month number of speeding tickets holds true, that's three tickets for every licensed driver in the District of Columbia in a given year. That's overkill.

DAVIS: Police say speeding in the District, where most roads have a 25-mile-an-hour limit, is a factor in nearly half of the District's traffic deaths.

ASSISTANT CHIEF TERRY GAINER, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: We're not in this for the money. We are in it to save lives. Listen, driving is a privilege, and you have no right to get out here and speed and run red lights and kill people.

DAVIS (on camera): A private company, Lockheed-Martin, runs the operation. Lockheed pays the $100,000 cost of each of five camera- equipped patrol cars, as well as for the police officers who work strictly on overtime.

(voice over): In exchange, Lockheed gets $29 per ticket and could make $28 million a year.

ANDERSON: Law enforcement needs to be kept pure. We need to separate profit making from law enforcement.

DAVIS: Lockheed-Martin says it is helping the city do what it couldn't afford on its own. Lockheed also runs the city's controversial red light cameras, another big money maker. Police say red light running is down 50 percent, and hope the same happens with speeding.

Patty Davis, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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