Rolling Meadows authorizes cameras at intersections

Rolling Meadows has become the latest suburb to give the green light to traffic cameras.

Aldermen on Tuesday night backed a police plan to add 12 cameras around town as a means to make the streets safer.

"Installing red-light photo enforcement at intersections enhances our ability to be everywhere," Rolling Meadows Deputy Police Chief Dave Scanlan said.

With the aldermen's OK, police now will look at which traffic camera to use and at which intersections to post the cameras. Rolling Meadows has met with seven different vendors.

Each intersection chosen would have at least two cameras.

City officials greeted the idea as way to improve intersection safety.

"It'll save lives," 6th Ward Alderman Kathy Kwandras said.

Some critics of the cameras have said they are meant to raise money for police departments. Each ticket would be $100.

But Mayor Ken Nelson said the cameras were a way to increase driver awareness at dangerous intersections.

"The point is not necessarily to raise revenue," he said.

Second Ward Alderman Barb Lusk said this would help make pedestrians safer and deter people from running a red light.

Third Ward Alderman Larry Buske liked the idea as a way to let an officer patrol other areas of the city rather than sit at a traffic intersection.

Being stationed near Algonquin Road and Route 53 can be unsafe for police since it's so busy and can be dangerous for them to pull out suddenly to catch traffic scofflaws, Scanlon said.

The cameras would alleviate this problem, he said.

Aldermen within a few weeks will get a report back from the police on how to proceed with the plan, police said.

Other suburbs already use the cameras, including Rosemont and Bolingbrook.