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SUNNY Temp: 53 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Thursday, November 21, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend September 19, 2002 Photo finish: Stoplight tickets a go Medford police begin mailing $175 fine notices to first drivers caught running the red By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune After months of delay, tickets for red-light runners are on the way. The city of Medford mailed three citations for red-light violations Wednesday, the first in the police department’s photo enforcement campaign. Digital cameras have been snapping photos since May at the intersections of Biddle and McAndrews roads and Barnett Road and Riverside Avenue, but efforts to perfect a computer system have kept drivers in the clear until now. The fact that the cameras only logged three violations in the first run is not disappointing to police officials. "The system is working from a safety standpoint," said Medford Deputy Police Chief Ron Norris. "I’ve noticed a marked difference in the way people drive since photo enforcement came in," said Lt. Mike Moran. When they were first erected in May, the cameras were recording about 25 citations every day at each of the two intersections, said Jack Weaver, manager of Medford’s photo enforcement campaign for the Australian company Poltech International Limited. They’re now down to three or four daily, Weaver said. The vast majority of violations happen in the left turn lanes at Biddle and McAndrews, he added. Red-light runners will receive a citation in the mail for $175 — the fine for running a red light. The citation is accompanied by a letter that presents the driver with three digital photos of their vehicle running the light. The photos also display the date, time, location, how long the light was yellow before the photo was taken and how long it was red when the shot was snapped. The vehicle’s speed and the posted speed limit also are shown, although drivers will not be ticketed for both running a red light and speeding, Norris said. The driver can view a total of 10 photos of their car by making an appointment at the police department, Weaver said. Sent to the vehicle’s registered owner, the ticket also contains a "certificate of innocence." If the registered owner of the vehicle was not driving, the owner sends in a photocopy of his or her driver’s license with the form. The ticket is dismissed if the vehicle’s owner does not identify who was driving, Norris said. However, businesses that receive a citation connected to a company vehicle must identify the driver, Norris said. The citations are prepared at and mailed from the local office of APAC Technologies. Each citation is reviewed by a sworn police officer, according to Oregon law. The citations must be mailed within 10 business days. There is no backlog of tickets that will be issued from the point when cameras were installed. Although the citations hadn’t been issued until Wednesday, employees at the APAC office were fielding up to 10 phone calls a day from motorists concerned that they may have received a ticket, Weaver said. Drivers do not receive tickets for making a right turn after stopping or if the light turns red when they are in the middle of the intersection. Tickets are issued to drivers who enter the intersection after the light has already turned red. Sensor strips embedded in the pavement pinpoint a vehicle’s position. And if drivers stop quickly enough for a red light, they most likely will get a break even if the car is hogging the crosswalk. "A lot of people are just over the stop bar," Weaver said. "We’re going to give them the benefit of the doubt." Driven by radar van, traffic citations start to increase If it weren’t for the police department’s new photo-radar van, total traffic tickets would be down this summer. Medford police officers wrote about 300 fewer tickets each month in June and July this year than last year, said Medford police Lt. Mike Moran. The decrease can be blamed on a shortage of officers this year because some retired while several others were on military leave, Moran said. However, the police department swore in four officers Wednesday to fill vacancies and plans to hire two more next month, he added. The photo-radar van, which first hit the road at the end of May, logged 70 speeding tickets in June, 326 in July and 519 in August. The van was patrolling only school zones and residential areas until July when the Medford City Council passed an ordinance allowing the van to operate in commercial areas where it was previously barred. The speed van patrols the city eight hours a day, seven days a week. However, the police department has plans to operate it during daylight hours every day, said Medford Deputy Police Chief Ron Norris. The department soon will hire several more part-time officers to run the van, Norris added. The van most likely will not operate during times of heavy rain or snow when drivers usually do not speed, Norris said. 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