Second in a series
Re “Theory Trumps Data in Backing Red Light Camera System”
[img]2709|right|Captain Allen Azran||no_popup[/img]Newly promoted police captain Allen Azran offers a reasoned response to critics of red light cameras at intersections who insist data be presented to justify the existence of the much-disputed cameras.
Are Culver City streets safer now than at the turn of the century when new-fangled red light cameras began sprouting, enriching the coffers of camera entrepreneurs?
“Yes,” says Capt. Azran.
But when pressed for numbers, he says “it is hard to sink your teeth into it because we have had the system in place for so long.
“It is not as if we put it in two years ago, and we say ‘crashes from three years ago are ‘x.’ and crashes from today are ‘y.’ When we are saying crashes from 1999 or 2000 are ‘x,’ and crashes from today are ‘y,’ a lot of variables come into play,” Capt. Azran said. “Let’s say you have 20,000 cars going through La Cienega and Washington in the year 2000. Then you have 40,000 cars going through there today.”
Drawing a comparison between the two eras “is a difficult number to arrive at because you have double the volume.
“We don’t necessarily know what the crashes would have been with double the volume and no (red light camera) system. We do know what the crashes are now with double the volume and a system in place.”
(To be continued)
