Kane County may add red lights cameras

Red light scofflaws could be ticketed $100 per violation under a proposal discussed Monday to install cameras at traffic lights across Kane County.

The Kane County Board's transportation committee reviewed a draft policy for a camera enforcement system. The move comes six months after Lombard-based RedSpeed Illinois pitched its services to the transportation committee.

Since then, officials from several municipalities have expressed interest in partnering with the county on a red light camera system, committee Chairman Jan Carlson said. But officials have yet to identify any intersections as possible candidates.

"We can't afford to have a policeman at every corner," said committee member Mike Kenyon, a South Elgin Republican. "I think this'll be a good thing."

RedSpeed has contracts with 12 agencies in Illinois, including the municipalities of Rosemont, Lisle and Bolingbrook and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The committee forwarded the proposal to the board's executive committee, which is expected to discuss the issue next month.

A freestanding camera and in-ground sensors are used to detect violations. Drivers are photographed approaching the intersection when the light turns red and in the middle of the intersection. Their license plate also is photographed but the driver's face is not.

Local governments lease the equipment from RedSpeed, which gets a cut of the revenue generated from tickets issued to the red-light scofflaws.

If the cameras are installed in Kane County, a portion of the ticket proceeds would also be split by the county and the municipality where the camera is located, but those percentages have not been finalized.

Red-light cameras have become a hot topic since Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a law last year allowing them to be installed in suburban Chicago and St. Louis. Chicago's system, operated by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., was the first allowed in Illinois four years ago.