Kane County's first red light camera has a tough road

Kane County's chief law enforcement officer must step up his evidence collection techniques if he hopes to add red light cameras to his safety efforts.

Sheriff Pat Perez is expected to pitch a plan to the county board Tuesday to install a red light camera at the intersection of Orchard Road and Interstate 88. The camera would be the first controlled by the county with revenues it generates filtering back to county coffers.

However, the county board's Transportation Committee trashed the idea Monday in what may be preview of the reception the plan receives Tuesday.

Perez has sold the plan as a move to increase safety at the intersection. He had a private company complete a study to determine the amount of red light infractions and found quite a few, video of which will be shown to the county board.

But county staff have also studied the intersection and found that only eight crashes occurred at the intersection in the past four years. Only one of those was directly attributable to a car running a red light. Indeed, Orchard Road at I-88 ranks 114th of all the intersections in the county in terms of crashes.

Kane County Transportation Director Carl Schoedel said there are no universal justification standards for what makes a red light camera a good idea at an intersection. So when determining when such a camera is appropriate, the county places a high value on problems directly attributable to running a red light.

So far, the county has approved permits for five red light cameras under the control of local municipalities. Staff is reviewing three more applications and is aware of at least one more proposal in the conception phase.

Schoedel said local police departments and even Perez have not necessarily made it easy for transportation staff to determine if a camera is appropriate.

"The police departments are either unable or unwilling to provide citation reports," Schoedel said. With no data about traffic problems at the intersections being considered, transportation staff can only go on the information they have in house, he said.

Board Member Cathy Hurlbut, of Elgin, encouraged Perez to not abandon the idea of cameras, but come back with a better plan.

"If our purpose behind this camera is for safety, and I don't have an argument against safety, then it has to go into one of our top 20 intersections," Hurlbut said.

That, too, may be problematic, Schoedel said. Transportation staff has recently put in place or has plans to put in place additional safety measures, such as warning signs and flashing lights, at most of the problematic intersections in the top 10 list. Board members also acknowledged that no matter what Perez pitches, he'll have to fend off the specter of it being a move simply to create a new income source for the county during a desperate budget time.