Cameras capture speeders and cash

County brought in $5.2M in first year of photo-enforced Safe Speed program

The Safe Speed program, the first of its kind in Maryland, places cameras throughout the county on roads where the speed limit is 35 mph or less. The cameras photograph the license plate of vehicles traveling more than 10 mph above the speed limit. Motorists in violation then receive $40 tickets through the mail. The cameras are marked by road signs announcing that the speed limit is ‘‘photo enforced.”

Cameras are either fixed or are rotated to different sites for periodic enforcement. Currently, county police have 30 fixed speed cameras employed and six mobile cameras rotating between 60 sites. Mobile cameras move to a new site about every 45 days, said Capt. John Damskey, director of the traffic division for county police.

The project began in May 2007 in the county and later that summer in the municipalities of Rockville, Gaithersburg and Chevy Chase Village.

In a work session Monday with the Montgomery County Council’s Public Safety Committee, police representatives were on hand to discuss the effects of speed cameras and the future of the program, and county officials presented revenue figures.

The fiscal 2008 budget for the county Safe Speed program was $3.3 million, and it earned $5.2 million in revenue from about 180,000 citations, said Richard Romer, a legislative analyst from the Office of Legislative Oversight.

Revenue for the county program is expected to be more than $14 million for fiscal 2009, said Joseph F. Beach, director of the county office of management and budget. Revenue from the Safe Speed program is to be allocated to public safety and pedestrian programs.

Representatives of the municipalities that use the cameras reported that drivers were now paying closer attention to their speeds.

In Gaithersburg, Lt. Tom Campbell of the Gaithersburg Police Department said speeding citations are down dramatically, from an average of 4,500 per month just before the speed cameras to about 1,000 in recent months. Gaithersburg has two fixed cameras and a mobile camera.

‘‘The feedback has been positive for the most part,” Campbell said. ‘‘Even the people who have received citations understand they are wrong.”

Rockville Police Chief Terry Treschuk said at the city’s three sites with fixed cameras, the average speed has been less than the speed limit. Rockville has two cameras in mobile vans that rotate between 12 different sites.

Chief Roy Gordon of the Chevy Chase Village Police said speeding is still a problem on Connecticut Avenue, the location of both of his department’s fixed cameras, but there has been a decrease in collisions, from about 13 to 14 per month before the program to three to four per month.

‘‘I’ve had folks call me and say that they got a ticket and they deserved it, but it’s changed their driving behavior, not just where speed cameras are, but any place they go,” Gordon said.

Gordon said Chevy Chase Village’s net revenue from citations is about $1.6 million after expenses. The money will be used to fund a sidewalk on Brookville Road and other streetscaping efforts.

An independent study by the Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety selected 20 random sites in the county and found that drivers exceeding the speed limit by more than 10 mph decreased by about 70 percent. The study was conducted over the six months prior to speed camera enforcement and the six months following.

‘‘Increasing the perceived risk of detection is one of the most important objectives,” said IIHS senior transportation engineer Richard Retting. ‘‘This is Psychology 101. When there are consequences from inappropriate behavior, that behavior occurs less frequently.”

In a random telephone survey of more than 800 drivers conducted six months before Safe Speed was enforced, 62 percent of those polled said were in favor of the program, Retting said.

Councilman Donald Praisner (D-Dist. 4) of Calverton said speed cameras are an effective way to expand the reach of traffic enforcement in the county.

‘‘I’m a big advocate of speed cameras because I think that’s the only way we are going to get people to slow down,” he said. ‘‘We don’t have the manpower to have police officers at every road 24 hours a day.”

Both Praisner and Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg asked Damskey if he had heard the common opposition of speed camera programs — that they are simply another way of government to take more money from residents.

‘‘This is not a ‘gotcha program,’” Damskey said in response. ‘‘... Our goal is to reduce speeds.”

In the coming months, county police intend to expand the program and deploy more cameras, in addition to moving fixed cameras from calmed traffic sites to more problematic ones, Damskey said.

The Safe Speed program is a pilot project authorized in 2006 by state law after efforts to pass a speed camera bill since 1998 failed. At Monday’s work session, a schedule was determined for an analysis of the program’s effectiveness, which the council must present to the Maryland General Assembly by the end of 2009.