Deer Park to add red-light cameras near shopping center

Deer Park has approved red-light cameras for the Rand Road intersections at both ends of the Deer Park Town Center shopping center.

Following feasibility studies started in May 2008, the village has hired RedSpeed Illinois to install the cameras.

The Kildeer Police Department, which also serves Deer Park, will handle the monitoring of the cameras.

Kildeer already has one red-light camera of its own at Rand and Quentin roads, immediately northwest of the two intersections Deer Park has authorized for cameras.

Despite the public criticisms of red-light cameras that have arisen in the two years since Kildeer installed its own, the department's opinion of their effectiveness hasn't wavered, Kildeer Interim Police Chief Robert Zujewski said.

He added Kildeer's camera has fulfilled its purpose to reduce collisions at an accident-prone corner.

Deer Park Village President Bob Kellermann said he's been well aware of the debate over the cameras in other communities like Schaumburg, and the critics' charges that their main purpose has been to generate money from the $100 fines.

But based on data from communities like Kildeer, it was determined that the cameras do work to promote safety, Kellermann said. In Kildeer, the continued use of the cameras has reduced violations to virtually zero.

Meanwhile, at one of the intersections Deer Park will enforce, 92 violations were reported in a single four-hour period, Kellermann said.

"We felt, after viewing the tapes and going over the accident reports and test data, that for safety's sake we'd do it," he said. "Mathematically, the money wasn't an issue for us. There are other ways to make money."

Intersections selected for red-light camera enforcement are chosen not by their traffic levels but their number of accidents, Zujewski said.

Collisions along Rand Road in Kildeer and Deer Park are most commonly caused by speeding and failing to yield the right of way at intersections, he added.

The department does and will continue to enforce recorded violations of failure to stop completely before a right turn on a red light, Zujewski said.

One of the biggest myths purported by camera critics, he said, is that prosecuting a violation can cost a municipality as much as $1,000 if a driver contests it.

In fact, the cost of the cameras are funded entirely by violators and taxpayers have lost no money to their operation, Zujewski said.

He said it could take three to five months for the new cameras to be installed. There also will be warning signs installed and a warning period of two weeks to 30 days before the first tickets are issued.