Chicago speed cameras produce hundreds of thousands of tickets after rule change – CBS Chicago
By Dorothy Tucker and Carol Thompson
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On March 1, 2021, speed cameras across Chicago began issuing warnings or actual tickets for speeding exceeding the 6-10 mph limit in specific “child safe zones” near certain parks and schools. Previously, $ 35 tickets were issued 10 mph over the limit and $ 100 tickets were issued for 11 mph or more.
CBS 2 investigators reviewed publicly available data as well as information received from a public record request for a 36-day period before and after the change took effect. We learned that citywide tickets went from 35,784 in the five weeks leading up to March 1 to 398,233 in the following five weeks. These 398,000 tickets amounted to $ 871,035 in fines. Some of these tickets could have been early warnings that did not result in a fine due.
“I see this thing going off all the time,” said Ricky Duddleston, who lives directly across from the radar at 3200 S. Archer Ave. “Flashing constantly… I think this is a scam, man.”
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Duddleston doesn’t buy the city security zone reason to put the camera there. There is a small neighborhood park a few blocks away. But he said, “There are no children walking on this street. Never.”
Money is the motive if you ask Duddleston. “The city is crying broke. How much money do you think they make with these things? “
This Archer camera flashed 257 times before March 1 and 11,016 times after. The fines totaled $ 25,335 for city coffers. Comparing these new ticket numbers to a pre-pandemic year, this camera captured 1,853 speeding tickets during the same period in 2019.
“Tickets are skyrocketing,” said Anthony Beale, Alderman for the 9th Ward. He has two cameras in his room. One is near Abbott Park on 95th Street. But the one he really hates is 30 blocks south. “The one in 12th grade is on a cycle path,” Ald said. Béale.
And, this camera has the biggest jump in speeding tickets and fines in its room. Before March 1, 2,573 tickets issued. After March 1 13 588. Additional funds for the city? $ 26,680. Again, in the same five-week period from March to April, this camera only generated 4,900 tickets two years ago.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. In a time when people can’t afford to pay, we now hit them on the head with ticket after ticket after ticket. It’s a revenue generator, period. Ald said. Béale.
“It’s disgusting to prey on the poor in this way,” said community activist Mark Wallace, who is just as angry as the alderman. He has fought for years to abolish red light cameras and believed he had an ally not to impose regressive fines and fees on then-candidate Lori Lightfoot.
“This is something the mayor ran over and promised she wouldn’t do,” Wallace said.
Lightfoot made this promise during a CBS2 mayor’s debate two years ago when she said, “I am determined to ensure that we do not continue to balance the budget on the backs of the less able. to manage it. “
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Christopher Swanson is one of those least able to handle the new lower speeding fine limits.
“This is a speeding ticket I got at 4909 N. Cicero Ave. There is my car,” he said, pointing to the image on his ticket. He said he had secured three tickets since the change went into effect in early March.
Swanson is a retired fixed income custodian and those three $ 35 notes total $ 105. “I have a mortgage to pay, I have the gas, the light, the phones, all of that together, it’s not enough,” he said.
Where he got his last ticket for driving 37 miles per hour in a 30 mph park zone at 4909 N. Cicero, 513 tickets were issued in the 5 weeks before the change and 15,672 in the 5 weeks. .
after. The camera generated $ 37,225 in fines for the city. Back in 2019 – the same camera in 2019 captured 3,319 speeders.
“Personally, I feel like I haven’t gone over the speed limit,” Swanson said. “But, I can’t… challenge the cameras.” Prior to this change in March, Cicero’s camera would not have recorded Swanson as a speeding ticket. He also may not have gotten his other two tickets in a different security zone.
“Oh, I’m very frustrated about this. I really am, ”he said.
Frustration drives Alderman Beale to try to reverse the change, because “if you keep lowering the threshold the chances of getting a ticket are greater,” he said.
Ald. Beale recently introduced an ordinance to turn back time and reset tickets 10 miles and above beyond the limit. He also wants the mayor to keep his promise because “it is totally contradictory with what you have told us and what you have sold to us”, he declared.
Response from the Chicago Mayor’s Office:
“The speed threshold change was implemented in response to an alarming increase in vehicle speeding and fatal traffic accidents. This change affects the city’s 68 Automated Speed Control (ASE) Child Safety Zones, which are operational near schools when they are in session and children are present, and in parks during daylight hours. ‘opening.
Forty-three more people died in traffic crashes in Chicago in 2020, a 45% increase from 2019. These deaths came at a time when fewer cars were on the road due to the pandemic and city traffic data showed cars were going 8-10 percent faster on average than at the same time the year before.
The goal is not to issue tickets, but to encourage safer driving behavior and to discourage speeding that is correlated with more serious injuries and fatalities in traffic accidents. In order to avoid a speeding violation, drivers simply need to obey the speed limit.
Even gradual reductions in speed greatly increase the likelihood of avoiding death or serious injury in the event of an accident. According to federal road safety data, the chances of a pedestrian surviving being struck by a car are 90% if struck by a car traveling at 20 mph, 50% chance of surviving if they are struck by a car at 20 mph. is struck by a car traveling at 30 mph and has only a 10% chance of surviving. being struck by a car traveling at 40 MPH.
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Did you get a Chicago speed camera ticket after March 1? We want to hear from you.
Email investigative producer Carol Thompson at [email protected], call us at 312-899-2250 or contact us using the form below.
