Kansas City police say their most recent analysis shows that red light cameras are reducing accidents. And based on that data, they plan to add more of the cameras.
Deputy Police Chief Cheryl Rose gave a city council committee a report this week on a traffic camera study presented to the police board two weeks ago. It found that accidents caused by red light running at photo enforced intersections declined 65 percent the first year and another 54 percent the second year.
The data indicates that the number of violations detected at those intersections has declined by a third in the first year, and that the drivers ticketed were unlikely to be repeat offenders.
There were no fatal accidents at any of the intersections with cameras since they were installed in 2009.
Rear-end collisions, a concern of traffic-cam opponents, declined in the first year the cameras were in operation, but increased again in the second year. Police believe increase in rear-end accidents is related to increasing distractions for drivers, including electronic devices.
She said also said the police have used the video from the cameras on at least 60 occasions, including the investigation of crashes, robberies and homicides.
Based on the data from the analysis, the department plans to move at least 3 or the 29 existing cameras to intersections not now photo enforced and add as many as 7 new red light cameras.