Proposed 19 locations for red light and speed cameras.
A committee of alders unanimously voted Tuesday night to advance a plan to install 19 red light and speed cameras across New Haven.
The vote took place during a meeting at City Hall of the Board of Alders Legislation and Public Safety committees. The proposal now heads to the full Board of Alders for review and a potential final vote.
Alders raised concerns about the cameras targeting minority communities, the adjudication process for people who receive tickets, and the enforceability of the tickets. But during the public hearing portion of the meeting, resident after resident came up to the front table in the Board of Alders meeting room in City Hall to testify in favor of the measures.
The joint meeting comes after the state legislature passed legislation in 2022 authorizing municipalities to install red light and speed cameras. In response to that legislation, the Elicker administration drew up a plan for installing cameras in New Haven, a plan requiring Board of Alders approval.
Connecticut saw its deadliest year for car crashes in 2022, with an estimated 368 people dying in car crashes across the state.
The entire New Haven state legislative delegation supported the automatic traffic enforcement bill, which included stringent requirements to protect both people’s privacy and marginalized communities in the state.
Under the state’s requirements, the city can only issue written warnings for the first 30 days after installation. After that grace period, people can receive a fine of up to $50 for their first offense and $75 for subsequent offenses.
During Tuesday’s public hearing, East Rock/Downtown Alder Eli Sabin asked city staff to explain the process of ensuring accountability, since the citations issued will be civil infractions rather than the traditional traffic tickets that people receive from cops.
City transportation Director Sandeep Aysola explained the city is working to be able to collect citations and make it so that civil adjudicators would hear the case and decide to dismiss it or take potential action.
West Hills Alder Honda Smith questioned why the state’s statute required that the city issue only civil citations and not moving violations. A moving violation ticket carries more serious penalties like points on a person’s license.
Aysola explained that the cameras could identify only a vehicle violating the law instead of a person, and a moving violation can be issued only to a person.
Westville Alder Adam Marchand also pushed city officials to explain the set of circumstances under which an adjudicator or civil judge would throw out a citation, since the statute sets up six automatic exceptions — including a broken traffic light and discretion by a law enforcement officer.
City staff fielded questions about privacy and what contingency plans the city had for drivers who might obscure their license plates. Aysola acknowledged that this was a limitation they were still navigating.
More than a dozen members of the public testified as well, including the father-son duo John and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
John said, as a father of two children, the biggest danger to his children in this city are drivers who speed through red lights with no care for anyone around them.
Ryan added seemingly every day he sees someone run a red light with no punishment. He said his father has been telling him for as long as he can remember to watch out for cars.
Kirsten Bechtel, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at YNHH, added her voice in support. She testified that she has seen how dangerous cars in New Haven have been for children over her past two decades here.
“These cameras aren’t just the solution, they are a proven method to change behavior, reducing speeding red light violations. As New York City has demonstrated, automatic automated enforcement does change behavior. Half of all drivers in New York City who received the first violation never received another, and speeding violations and camera locations dropped by 70 percent,” she said.
Ryan and John Fitzpatrick testify.
Officials announcing the plan on March 18.