Put up red light on camera enforcement

I don't think officials in area towns are listening to their constituents when it comes to installation of these red light cameras and I completely support the Daily Herald's call for justification before implementation.

In particular, I would demand a public statement of the reasons for installing red light cameras and data to support the need. If safety is offered as the justification, then I would demand data on personal injury accidents at the targeted intersections. No one cares if someone fails to come to a complete stop at an intersection unless that failure causes a personal injury accident.

The data must include both a threshold number of prior personal injury accidents required to justify a camera at an intersection and metrics for measuring success of the cameras.

If a camera does not reduce the number of personal injury accidents by a certain percentage over a certain time, then it should be removed or at least reviewed.

Remember, we are talking about thousands of additional tickets with no personal judgment coming to bear and no reasonable means to contest the citation.

If we think the Illinois tollway violation system is harsh, wait until we experience this.

According to the Daily Herald, one municipality has already removed the cameras due to public outcry.

I know of no sufficient justification for this massive administrative intrusion into people's lives but a demonstrable improvement in personal safety.

But if our elected officials would like to suggest another, including increased revenue, then I would demand a public statement to that effect before the cameras are installed.

This is nothing more than a scheme to transfer dollars from drivers to municipal coffers and to the single company that makes the cameras. Please, save us all some money and just leave people alone.

Richard A. Rosenthal

St. Charles