Laserfiche WebLink
more likely to go unpaid, and therefore accrue additional fines, than those issued <br />to drivers from non-LMI and non-minority zip codes. Drivers from LMI and <br />minority zip codes were also more likely to have their driver’s licenses suspended <br />for failure to pay tickets than drivers from non-LMI and non-minority zip codes. <br />As a result, ticket recipients from LMI and minority zip codes were twice as likely <br />as recipients in non-LMI and non-minority zip codes to file for bankruptcy. <br />How Bad Could this Be in Santa Ana? <br />San Francisco’s speed camera program is on track to issue approximately $17 <br />million in tickets per year. Based on Santa Ana’s potential camera allocation, the <br />city could impose a devastating $10 million ticket burden on its residents and <br />visitors. This would result in massive economic hardship, especially for those of <br />lesser means, who could individually face hundreds of dollars in fines. <br />Worse, the huge economic damage caused by this new ticketing scheme likely will <br />not make roadways safer. The Illinois Policy Institute found that, contrary to city <br />officials’ claims of safety improvements, after years of issuing hundreds of <br />millions of dollars in automated speeding tickets, the City of Chicago actually saw <br />a 14% increase in traffic fatalities in 2021.[4] A 2017 study in Great Britain found <br />that any potential safety effects from speed cameras were highly localized and <br />that more collisions were induced as the distance from the cameras increased. A <br />2013 study in Arizona found that “highway speed cameras did not independently <br />affect the incidence of motor vehicle collisions.”[5] University of Illinois-Chicago <br />research also concluded that there was “little relationship between the number of <br />tickets issued and the safety impact of cameras.” <br />What is especially troubling about the speed camera pilot program is that it is <br />being promoted as a benefit to low-income communities and communities of <br />color through claims that ticketing cameras are color-blind and would serve as an <br />alternative to live police officers. By now, it should be clear that nothing could be <br />further from the truth. Rather than replacing live police enforcement, automated <br />ticketing cameras would be an additional form of enforcement, leading to a surge <br />in the number of citations issued that would fall most heavily on marginalized <br />communities. Nothing in the bill would prevent police officers from continuing to <br />make stops as they do now. The cameras would simply issue a significantly higher <br />number of citations than live officers, imposing an additional financial burden on