Apopka — the first city in Central Florida to install red-light cameras — is ringing in 2019 by ushering them out.
The City Council voted unanimously in late summer to notify Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions by year’s end that Orange County’s second-largest city would not renew a contract for cameras, which have helped catch red-light scofflaws in Apopka since 2007.
“My campaign promise was to get rid of them,” Mayor Bryan Nelson said. “Safety will always be our No. 1 priority, but red-light cameras don’t necessarily reduce accidents.”
Meanwhile, newly-elected state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, has introduced a bill (HB 6003) to repeal the 2010 legislation authorizing Florida governments to use red-light cameras.
“The program that was created by the 2010 red-light camera bill is a failure…It’s actually done really nothing,” he said, adding cameras haven’t curbed accidents as supporters had hoped.
Sabatini cited a 2014 report from the Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability that found fewer fatalities but more crashes at electronically monitored intersections.
He said very few cities use ticket revenue to improve public safety — though a notable exception is Orlando, where ticket revenue pays for pedestrian and traffic-safety initiatives.
Many local governments plow their shares into the general fund, he said.
Despite Apopka’s decision and Sabatini’s bill, red-light cameras aren’t coming down in Orlando, Ocoee or unincorporated Orange County.
“The red-light camera program is a very important component of our safety initiative,” said Billy Hattaway, Orlando’s transportation director.
Cameras at 24 Orlando intersections detected about 46,000 red-light violations that , which passed a police review during fiscal year 2017-18, which ended Sept. 30.
At $158 a ticket, Orlando’s red-light camera program pulled in $7.2 million in the last fiscal year — $3.8 million of which went to the state Department of Revenue.
After paying camera rentals and other program expenses, Orlando cleared about $1.9 million, all of which went into safety initiatives such as Orlando STOPS and Vision Zero, the latter of which aims to reduce pedestrian fatalities.
Hattaway said a flaw in the existing law doesn’t require red-light revenue to be spent on local traffic-safety education, engineering or enforcement as Orlando does.
He spoke to an appropriations committee and appealed to legislators to fix the law rather than kill it.
“If you’re collecting it based on safety then it should go to improving safety,” Hattaway said.
He said Orlando’s red-light cameras are stationed at intersections traveled primarily by local commuters — not tourists.
“This is not a tourist issue,” Hattaway said.
Cameras are likely to stay in unincorporated Orange County, too.
Spokeswoman Doreen Overstreet said the county has no plans to expand or re-examine the red-light camera program.
The county issued nearly 70,000 red-light violations from November 2017 through this November.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who has served as Orange County sheriff and Orlando police chief, was the lone mayoral candidate this year to endorse red-light cameras.
“Red-light cameras improve traffic safety, reduce serious accidents and injuries to motorists and pedestrians and, most importantly, assist in creating a safe Orange County,” he said.
Ocoee, which first put up red-light cameras in 2009 at its busiest intersections, is not planning to take them down, Deputy Police Chief Steve McCosker said.
“There is no way we would be able to have 24/7 enforcement or presence at these intersections,” he said.
McCosker said red-light camera footage also has helped police solve other crimes, notably the murder of a witness in a home-invasion case.
Red-light camera also are in use in the Orange County cities of Edgewood, Maitland and Winter Park, Kissimmee and unincorporated Osceola County.
A bill similar to Sabatini’s was approved 83-13 in January by the Florida House but died in the state Senate.
“I think this is the best shot we’ve had in a few years,” Sabatini said of a repeal. “There’s a lot of new people in the Senate who I think are on the same wave-length from a smaller-government perspective…”
Other Florida cities have dumped red-light cameras in recent years, including Clermont, Groveland and West Palm Beach.
Though Apopka’s red-light cameras will stop taking pictures Jan.1, the city’s website includes a message from police to motorists: “Don’t run a red light in the city of Apopka. It costs you hard earned money and most important it can save a life.”
Police may keep a closer watch at intersections formerly monitored by the electronic devices.
Some motorists who failed to stop for camera-monitored red lights in 2018 may be disappointed to learn they could still get a ticket in 2019 — because of the lag in processing December violations. Violators will still be required to pay the $158 fine.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6361.