More speed cameras please, and pronto

It also has been a rewarding experience. In the three years since the camera was first deployed, driver behavior certainly has changed. Today, the camera flags about eight vehicles per hour. A corollary benefit is that the speed camera has acted as a force multiplier.

“We have burglaries in our neighborhoods, and now, instead of tying up officers to try to catch speeders, this gives us the chance to put them in marked cars, so that they can patrol these neighborhoods with high visibility,” Bobo said.

The camera (see photo)—costing between $50,000 and $75,000—is mounted on a mobile chassis that can be positioned just about anywhere. As vehicles move through the camera’s surveillance area, their positions are captured at 10 different intervals, and each interval is time-stamped. B&W Sensors is sent the data each morning for analysis. Data concerning vehicles deemed to have been speeding—going at least 10 miles per hour over the limit, according to Griffin—are then sent to the Moline Acres Police Department, where technicians verify that the citations are legitimate. If they are, B&W Sensors issues the citations using the police department’s stationery.

Drivers are issued a citation only if they exceeded the speed threshold at each of the 10 intervals, said Ryan Miller, operations manager for B&W Sensors.

“We want to make sure that we’re 100% positive,” Miller said. “If we only get 9 of the 10 points, the system kicks it out.”

To ensure that the system remains in calibration, an officer is sent out to the site with a Lidar detector, which is a sensor technology that measures distance by shooting a laser beam at a vehicle and then measuring the reflected light.

Using the same time-distance formula that the camera system uses to detect speeders, the police department can determine whether the system is within spec. If it isn’t, the fix is quite easy; the camera’s position can be repositioned remotely, in much the same way that a video-surveillance system’s pan-tilt-zoom camera can be eliminated.

According to Miller, the company has seen results similar to those realized in Moline Acres in other municipalities where it has installed its speed cameras.

“Within 12-18 months, you will see a drastic reduction in the number of speeders,” he said.

Personally, I would love to see these cameras on every street corner. Anyone who goes more than 10 miles over the speed limit puts everyone else at risk—this is especially true of young children, who are not always as careful or as aware of their surroundings as adults—and they deserve to have a few hard-earned bucks siphoned from their wallets.