TAMPA, FL -- According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, red light cameras reduce traffic accidents by almost 25 percent.
But there are significant questions about whether the red light cameras in one Tampa Bay Area community are actually doing what they're designed to do: cut down accidents at dangerous intersections.
Temple Terrace is one of the first local communities in the Tampa area to install red light cameras and initial reports show accidents are actually up.
"That's nonsense. Where are you getting your data?" City Councilor Ken Halloway asked.
From the city. According to the Temple Terrace Police, the number of accidents at intersections with red light cameras from when they first went operational October 2008 through February of this year were up 133 percent compared to the previous year when there were no cameras.
"That doesn't sound right to me," Halloway said.
Halloway doesn't have to take our word for it. All he has to do is listen to his Chief of Police Kenneth Albano, who says "We did show an increase in the number of crashes."
To be fair, we're not talking about a great deal of statistical evidence. Just a handful of accidents compared over a 5-month period year to year.
So why not get a larger sampling over a longer period of time to really see if accidents at red light cameras are up or down in Temple Terrace?
That would seem like the thing to do. But after that initial report showing accidents were up, police in Temple Terrace stopped keeping track.
Why? Temple Terrace Police denied our request for an interview, but after we showed up at a city council meeting, Mayor Joe Alfonti asked the question himself.
"Is it something we keep?" asked the mayor. "Statistically month by month we have crash reports but there's not a statistical break down month by month. It's a very time consuming process," responded Albano.
In fact the city told us if we wanted a statistical breakdown we could order all 145-crash reports of accidents at or near those two intersections from March through September of this year and the same months the previous year and compare them ourselves.
We did. And according to our research it appears during those seven months accidents increased by 18 percent since the red light cameras were put in.
Wiley Howell, a well known crash reconstruction expert, says red light cameras reduce accidents but they only reduce accidents if they're installed correctly.
"If you're only going to do it in the fashion I see here just in one direction you're really not going to deter the number of crashes that occur," Howell says.
At the intersection of Fowler and 56th Street, one of two locations in Temple Terrace with red light cameras, motorists driving Southbound on 56th Street are photographed and cited if they run the light but the other approaches to the intersection are not monitored.
"Really you're negating the issue you had them set up for in the first place. In essence, you're giving the illusion it's nothing but a money maker," says Howell.
David Bulluck is not an expert on Red Light Cameras but he did get a ticket from one. On the corner of Fowler and 56th.
He's now part of a class action suit over how they're being used in Temple Terrace and says "Actually it doesn't promote safety."
Hillsborough County, however, is taking another approach when it comes to red light cameras. The County is using them on multiple approaches to intersections like the corner of Dale Mabry and Waters.
Corporal Darrin Barlow says the Sheriff's Department is looking carefully at the results.
"We meet monthly. We look over crash data. We compare. We monitor trends. We always look for where we are having a problem," says Barlow.
Since red light cameras were installed in Temple Terrace, over 20,000 violations have been issued. And the city has taken in almost a million and a half dollars so far in fines. But the money is frozen, unable to be used for anything until the class action suit over the cameras is settled.
You can see the locations of red light cameras around the Bay Area below.
