RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago's red-light camera enforcement program, which began in 2003 and operates at 174 intersections across the City, is a public safety initiative designed to make streets safer by changing driver behavior; and
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago takes very seriously the validity of, and public confidence in, all of its public safety programs, including the red light camera program; and
WHEREAS, A recent report revealed some anomalies in ticketing patterns at several red light camera-equipped intersections across the City; and
WHEREAS, Because consistency and fairness are essential to maintaining the public's trust in the City's safety programs, the Chicago City Council requested the Department of Transportation to provide its Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety with detailed information about the immediate steps that have been taken, and will be taken, to ensure that no automated tickets were issued to Chicagoans in error and to strengthen the City's red light camera program going forward; and
WHEREAS, At a hearing conducted on July 23, 2014, the Commissioner of Transportation proposed steps to address the issue: a mailing to individuals who received a violation during a spike period, offering them a review by an independent audit firm to determine the citation's validity; a cooperative effort with the Office of the Inspector General to audit past tickets and to develop new standards to govern the red light camera program going forward; and a regular online City posting of the number of daily violations issued for each red camera location; and
WHEREAS, The City Council wishes to be updated regarding the progress of these and other efforts by the Department of Transportation to effectively address this important issue; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this thirtieth day of July, 2014, do hereby request appropriate members of the Department of Transpo...
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