[img]847|right|Jeff Muir||no_popup[/img]Here is why city officials say that reduction of accidents is the most persuasive argument for retaining red light cameras at intersections:
City Hall does not know how much revenue it is collecting from one of the most talked-about traffic devices in the country.
The imprecision does not appear to be City Hall’s fault.
“It is not really possible for me to directly answer the question of the revenue the city gets specific to red lights,” Chief Financial Officer Jeff Muir told the newspaper.
“All of the moving violations issued by the city, whether issued by an officer or through the red light camera program, end up with the County courts.
“Each month, we get a check from the County for our share of the tickets paid that month. They do not provide us a specific detail on what tickets were paid or what amount is from red light vs. those issued by an officer.”
Mr. Muir said that the “we record these checks in a specific account each month. I can tell you how much we received from the Court for our moving violations for a year.
“But I cannot specifically break out the red light information. The Police Dept. does get some additional detail data from (the vendor Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc.).”
Mr. Muir said that in Culver City and at Inglewood City Hall, where he was previously, it is nearly impossible to figure it out exactly, based on the poor data received.”
The CFO said that “for the last fiscal year, we recorded $1.7 million in revenue from moving violations. This fiscal year (to date), is looking a bit better. We are at $1.7 million as of today. It looks as if we will end the year at $1.9 or $2 million.”
