Naperville reducing red-light camera late fees
Red-light camera scofflaws in Naperville won't face as high a fine for not paying their tickets on time.
The city council Tuesday lowered the late payment penalty to $50, down from $100, beginning Feb. 1.
"I do think public acceptability has a lot to do with this program and scaling back the late fee is going to go in the right direction just to confirm we have safety as our paramount interest and we really don't want to use this as a way of squeezing money out of people," Councilman Robert Fieseler said.
Naperville has had red-light cameras at the intersection of Route 59 and North Aurora Road since January 2009 and issues an average of about 27 tickets a day there. In October, it began operating cameras at two additional intersections - Route 59 and Diehl Road and Ogden and Aurora avenues. Citation information for those intersections is not yet available.
Violators are fined $100. If they do not pay the fine or contest the ticket within 30 days they are assessed a late fee of $100, though the city has been observing a seven-day grace period.
Police Chief David Dial said the biggest complaint the department receives is about the amount of the late fee.
Councilman Richard Furstenau on Tuesday attempted to reduce that fee to $25 but did not garner enough support.
The council voted 7-2 in favor of a $50 penalty. Fieseler, Furstenau, Judy Brodhead, Paul Hinterlong, Doug Krause, Kenn Miller and Mayor George Pradel approved the measure.
Hinterlong said he believes the cameras have made drivers more conscientious and he supports the program but doesn't mind reducing the late fee in light of the tough economy.
Councilmen Jim Boyajian and Grant Wehrli were the two "no" votes. Wehrli said while he doesn't support using the cameras for right-on-red violations, he believes they are necessary for people who are blatantly speeding through intersections after the light has turned yellow.
"Until we get out of that mindset I will continue to support (tickets for) straight through on reds and for that same reason I will not support decreasing the fine," he said.
Krause spoke Tuesday against having any red-light cameras at all, saying accidents have not been dramatically reduced.
"You tell me it's about safety and I'm going to tell you it's about revenue," he said.
The latest crash data from Naperville police shows total crashes at the intersection of Route 59 and North Aurora Road were down 13.7 percent during the period of January through November 2009 compared to the three-year average. Angle crashes were down 31.4 percent, rear-end crashes dropped 8.9 percent and other crashes fell 19.2 percent. Injury crashes were down 20 percent.