New Port Richey not ready for red-light cameras

The prospects of cameras targeting red-light violators coming to an intersection near you in New Port Richey remains an open possibility, city officials said, but just don't expect them any time soon.

While Port Richey had a camera at U.S. 19 and Ridge Road that operated from mid-2008 until early last month, and now has a camera watching another quadrant of the busy intersection, New Port Richey Mayor Scott McPherson said the issue is not something in current deliberations.

Red-light cameras did make it onto the agenda of a summertime work session and was deemed worthy of further consideration, he said, but there has been no rush for near-future inclusion.

The work session topic was brought up during budgetary talks as a possible revenue generator to help lessen the recession's grip on the city's finances.

Although cameras remain a relevant option for the city, McPherson said the use of the nationwide, hot-button-issue systems is not something he favors.

"My comments (during the work session) were that I would never vote for a red-light camera," he said. "I am opposed to them on several grounds. I don't like them from a civil libertarian standpoint."

"I'd have to be really sold on the safety component and I am not," he added. "I will never vote for it, I cannot be any more emphatic. I'm just one vote, but I will never vote for it."

Councilwoman Judy DeBella Thomas and Police Chief Martin Rickus said they are noncommittal at this point, needing to see more cost-benefit analyses.

"I think people either love them or hate them," Rickus said. "There's the discussion of safety versus revenue that has been argued either way."

"I'm not a Big Brother guy myself, but I think it has merit," the chief added.

From May 2008 to early November, the single device capturing southbound traffic on U.S. 19 and Ridge Road led to 4,322 citations issued.

That camera was temporarily switched off as the city contracted with a different firm to operate the intersection surveillance system.

The lone intersection camera in operation monitors eastbound vehicles on Richey Avenue, as Ridge Road is known west of U.S. 19.

Port Richey Police Chief David Brown is adamantly in favor of the red-light cameras and their expanded use throughout Port Richey.

"We believe that we've helped save lives," Brown said. "It's not about the money, it's about saving lives and making people better drivers."

One point of contention with red-light cameras lays in their affect on accidents. Proponents argue angled, T-bone-style crashes and others are decreased, while opponents say there can be an increase in rear-end, panic-stopping accidents.

Brown says that though there have still been wrecks at the busy intersection, no such rear-end crashes have occurred with the cameras being indicted as a cause.