By the end of the month, red light and speed cameras will be back on Baltimore city streets.
The $9.7 million project was announced today by Mayor Catherine Pugh and three independent contractors at city hall. The contractors will be charged with installing, calibrating, and monitoring the cameras. A 30-day trial period will start when the 30 cameras are installed at the end of May.
@MayorPugh50 announces implemantation of red light and speed cameras for sometime next month #watchyourspeed @WYPR881FM pic.twitter.com/bQizMEFoKe
— Dominique Maria Bonessi (@dbonessi) May 17, 2017
Mayor Pugh hopes the new camera system will renew Baltimoreans’ confidence and bring revenue to the city.
“I think we have done a good job in reviewing the program. I think we have done due diligence and talking to other cities and see what companies are,” said Pugh in a press conference Wednesday. “I think with the calibration process and the review process we can renew confidence in the citizens of Baltimore.”
An earlier system was shut down in 2013 after it was discovered cameras were issuing speeding tickets to cars that weren’t speeding.
Compared to the red light and speed camera system from years past, this program’s contractors will not be paid by citation, rather they will be rented on per camera on a daily basis. There will be an ombudsman to be an intermediator between the city and a plaintiff should a driver go to court. The radar and laser tracking cameras will be calibrated twice a day to assure they are working properly.
Cameras will be up in force Mondays through Fridays in a half-mile radius of Kindergarten through 12 school zones.