The Chattanooga Police Department is hoping its new speed enforcement technology will result in fewer speeding tickets, not more.
The department is replacing its fleet of mobile speed vans with four spanking new Ford Explorers leased from General Services. The SUVs will be outfitted with radar-based equipment from Sensys America. The speed vans used laser-based gear to spot lead-footed drivers throughout the city.
The goal, says city traffic engineer John Van Winkle, who worked with the police department to select the new equipment, is to reduce speeding violations by employing effective technology. “If we can affect driver behavior, then we’ve done our job.”
The new cameras have a few key advantages over the old technology, says Van Winkle, including the ability to be placed where the old cameras could not go. “The new camera sits on a tripod that can be placed in the SUV or on the road, allowing the operator to set up the camera in a documented trouble spot and then park nearby instead of on the road being monitored,” he says.
While some drivers might cry foul, Sergeant Gary Martin, the officer in charge of the photo enforcement program at the police department, says drivers will have plenty of advance notice before passing through a monitored area.
“There will be a bright orange sign on the road somewhere between 500 and 1,000 feet before motorists pass the vehicle to let them know they’re approaching a speed enforcement zone,” Martin says.
Another distinct advantage of the new equipment is the high definition Nikon camera sitting on top of the tripod. Jim Hendrick, technical manager for Sensys, says the 10 megapixel camera can take a wide shot but still capture enough detail to allow the operator to pull the tag off a speeding vehicle. “The camera will allow the police to photograph closer and farther away than the laser.”
Hendrick says the new equipment is also easier to operate.
While the technology will be new, everything else will be “business as usual,” says Martin. Violators will still receive a fifty-dollar fine and a photo of the infringement via mail, and his department will continue to use the non-manned cameras installed throughout the city. In addition, the operators of the new speed enforcement vehicles will monitor traffic at the same hot spots they’ve been using.
Van Winkle says these combined efforts will make the streets of Chattanooga safer. “In 2001, we had 100 accidents at the (Hixson Pike) S-curves. Last year, we had two. People have learned they need to slow down,” he says.
According to Van Winkle, the city changed equipment because the contract for the previous gear had expired and the city wanted to take advantage of new technologies. Martin says the police department decided to switch because it “had some complications” with the system it was using.
Whatever the reasons, the department issued a request for bids and received several responses. Martin says the decision makers felt Sensys offered the best product and service package, and that the price was also right.
The police department is leasing the equipment from Sensys. Revenues from its use will fund its cost. “This is a revenue neutral program. Sensys will receive a percentage of the citations, but there’s no goal as far as how many dollars we have to make,” Martin says.
The revenues will also pay for the driver education program the police department runs. “The people who are paying fines are paying for the enforcement program and the safety program, which is the beauty of our plan,” says Van Winkle.
A representative with Sensys says the technology the Chattanooga police department will be using is deployed in “three or four states,” but declined to provide the number of locations.