St. Petersburg council members to vote on additional 9 red light cameras

ST. PETERSBURG - The St. Petersburg City Council will meet on Thursday to discuss whether additional red light cameras should be added in the city after 10 were erected a year ago.

Since the 10 cameras were added at 10 intersections last year, tens of thousands have been caught running those red lights, which brought in $700,000 in fines.

Installing the cameras was a move made by the city in hopes of making those intersections safe and reducing the number of accidents caused at those intersections, due to motorists running the lights.

But in a meeting last week, Wengay Newton, a St. Pete council member, says the data showed the crashes were up 10 percent in those areas, further proving that the 9 additional cameras some want installed wouldn't make sense.

However, those stats were left out of a report put together by city staffers.

The head of transportation in St. Petersburg said the numbers were left out simply because they weren't important for when it came down to keeping or removing the cameras.

ABC Action News was told the effectiveness of the cameras has been under close review and there may be a decision made today at that meeting. The council meeting begins at 3:00 p.m.