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Chevy Chase Village is seeing a decline in revenue from its speed cameras, as officials are analyzing how they might adjust the program after a 44 percent drop in the number of violations issued from April through October.

The drop in money received from the cameras is due in part to adjustments by local drivers, according to officials. Montgomery County as a whole has also seen a decline in the number of citations issued through its Safe Speed program, which uses speed cameras and red-light enforcement devices to reduce speeding violations and accidents.

In April and May, there were 340 citations per day generated from the two fixed-pole cameras and two portable cameras, all on Connecticut Avenue, Village Police Chief Roy Gordon said. That average declined to 192 violations per day in September and October.

"It is having an effect," Gordon said.

After payments to the vendor operating the cameras, each citation generates $23.75 for the Village before labor, transportation and other associated costs. This means the average generated for the Village per day in April and May was $8,075, while the average for September and October was $4,560.

By law, revenues from the cameras must be spent on public and pedestrian safety programs. For the month of October, after the associated costs and expenditures for an upgraded street lighting system and a planned walkway on Brookville Road, the village had a $66,000 deficit from the cameras.

So far in the 2009 fiscal year, the town has a $614,000 surplus generated from the cameras, according to village records.

Projections available from the village earlier this year indicated it would receive $1.2 million to $1.5 million from the cameras each fiscal year through FY 2013. Village Manager Geoffrey Biddle said he was not ready to change those projections.

Biddle said the village's revenue projections were based on the Washington, D.C. speed camera program when the village's mobile cameras began operation just over a year ago. The fixed-pole cameras began operation in March this year.

"It seems as if our Montgomery County drivers learn much more rapidly than is evidenced in D.C. We have very smart, very alert drivers," Biddle said.

According to Biddle and Gordon, one factor affecting revenues is that the two portable cameras can only operate during daylight hours. Less sunlight in the fall and winter means the portable cameras are out of action for longer periods. Gordon said the portable cameras are now turned off at 4 p.m.

"We have a number of different things we're looking at to get a grasp on the functioning of the program," Biddle said.

Montgomery County Police Capt. John Damskey, head of the county police's traffic division, said the county has also seen a decline in citations since the program began in September 2007 with the installation of a camera on Randolph Road.

"Some of our sites have seen up to a 33 percent decrease in the number of citations issued on a monthly basis," Damskey said.

Currently, the county has 30 fixed cameras and six mobile cameras in the Safe Speed program in six police districts. The first speed camera was installed at Randolph Road in September 2007.

"If numbers go down, that means we're doing our job," Damskey said.

Damskey said the county's contract with the camera vendor allowed police to move fixed camera sites to another location, although he said no specific fixed cameras had been targeted for relocation. Biddle said the village was also aware of the possibility but had not looked at it seriously yet.