AURORA | Aurora police could be placing more photo red-light cameras throughout the city after conducting a study of the city’s most dangerous intersections.
At a study session Monday, March 14, Aurora City Council voted to renew a contract with Xerox, the company which administers the photo red-light system, through June 2017.
Part of that contract includes Xerox paying $12,000 toward a proposed intersection study that will cost the city $24,000. According to city documents, the study would not begin until late this year or early 2017, and revenue from the photo red-light program would pay for the remaining cost.
The photo red-light program brings in approximately $3.3 million annually in revenue, according to Aurora police. About $500,000 of that money goes toward a “nexus” program that relies on photo red-light fine revenues to supports nonprofits that provide a substantial service to law enforcement.
The rest goes to administering the program and paying Xerox, Aurora police Lt. Michael McClelland said. He said four Aurora police officers are dedicated to reviewing every violation reported.
McClelland told Aurora City Council members at Monday’s study session that the city’s photo red-light cameras are making most intersections safer, but that he would like to move some of them from where they are now to six intersections with the highest crash statistics for serious bodily injury and fatalities in the last five years.
East Mississippi Avenue and South Sable Boulevard is the city’s most dangerous intersection, with 28 injury crashes over a five-year period. According to traffic data compiled by Aurora police between 2010 and 2015, the five other most-dangerous intersections in the city are at Peoria Street and Iliff Street, Quincy Road and Chambers Road, Iliff Avenue and Blackhawk Street, Peoria Street and Yale Avenue, and Smoky Hill Road and Buckley Road.
The one-year extension is a way for the city to end its contract with Xerox if state legislators ever succeed in outright banning the cameras, McClelland said.
House Bill 1231, which is sponsored by state Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, is a compromise that would prevent red-light cameras and radars from expanding in Colorado. It aims to ban the cameras on the state’s local and collector roads.
It has passed the state House with no amendments and will next heard by the state Senate Transportation committee. Another bill which aimed to outright ban the cameras has been postponed indefinitely.
Aurora’s photo red-light cameras are in place at 14 busy intersections across the city. Mclelland said if passed, HB 1231, should not affect Aurora’s cameras, which are all located on arterial roads.
Aurora Councilwoman At-Large Barb Cleland said that bill reflects what Aurora has been doing for years with photo red-light.
“Denver does not do what we do as thoroughly. In Denver, if your tires enter a crosswalk, you can get a ticket,” she said.
The city’s photo red-light contract with Xerox still needs to go before a regular city council session for final approval.