Elgin mayor cautious of installing cameras

Elgin Mayor Ed Schock wants to see more information about whether the city should install red-light cameras.

"I want to see why we think those are justified," he said this week. "I'm open minded, but I just don't know."

Schock's comments were in response to a Daily Herald investigation that showed suburban cameras were not necessarily placed at crash-prone intersections and frequently targeted motorists that didn't stop exactly at the line when making a right turn on a red light.

State Senate President John Cullerton, who was a chief proponent of red-light cameras, has said he wants to take a new look at the law and possibly ban sending out automatic tickets for rolling through right turns.

"I'll have to wait and see what the police department and others do, whether they decide to bring them forward," Schock said. "Initially, we were hoping to put them on Randall and for the right reasons. It was not to be a revenue source."

Elgin Deputy Police Chief Bob Beeter said police are working with Kane County officials to get permits for several intersections along Randall Road, Route 72, Big Timber Road and Bowes Road. Hopps and Randall Road is a fourth possibility, he said.

"We're still moving forward. REDFLEX (of Arizona) is still the vendor," he said. "We'd like to see it within the next three to six months."

Elgin's path toward cameras has had its share of setbacks.

In early 2008, city officials came up with a list of 13 possible intersections for REDFLEX to evaluate.

But in February 2009, city leaders said three intersections for cameras would not work for various reasons. The city has intersection improvements planned for Dundee Avenue and Summit Street, so it would be shortsighted to install cameras there that would be removed with construction.

Also, train-arm signals would have interfered with the red-light cameras at eastbound and westbound Big Timber Road and McLean Boulevard and westbound Kimball Road at State Street, or Route 31.

The intersections would be eligible for cameras if they met the threshold of an average of 15 tickets per day.

At $100 a ticket and if they meet their quota of 15 tickets a day, the cameras could rake in $495,000 per intersection per year after the city pays operating costs to REDFLEX.