Among the many issues we debate when it comes to road safety, there are a just a few that many sides agree on. One of them is the use of automated enforcement cameras to catch speeders and red light runners. These cameras are much more efficient and safer than police officers. They also work. At a press conference last week a Portland Bureau of Transportation spokesperson said, “We know in a matter of days and weeks, these cameras are able to drop the average speed — virtually eliminating excessive speeding.”
Since our major foe in the war on traffic deaths is kinetic energy, when people slow down we save lives. It’s that simple. But while these cameras do the job, they take valuable time away from other police work. With an estimated 100,000 citations a year via the 40 or so cameras PBOT expects to have in operation by 2025 (based on average citations per camera listed in a PBOT report to the legislature in 2022), that’s a lot of desk time for police officers.
When I asked Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division Sergeant Ty Engstrom at a press conference last week about adding even more cameras, the first thing that popped into his head was this administrative overhead. “That’s a lot of personnel it’s going to take because you have to review all those and you have to approve them, and so that’s that’s a daunting task.”
As per Oregon law, every citation issued by a camera (or a mobile radar van) must be reviewed by a “duly authorized traffic enforcement agent” — which since 2016 has always meant a police officer. This includes not just review of the citation itself, but details relating to the ensuing Multnomah County court case triggered by each one of them.
But that era is coming to an end. By next year, the Portland Bureau of Transportation hopes to bring some of that citation processing in-house.
Thanks to a push from PBOT and other safety advocates, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 4105 in 2022. That bill allows Portland to use non-police staff to process and review camera citations. So why is Sgt. Engstrom still hung up on the “daunting” amount of officer time it takes? Because even though the bill has been on the books for nearly two years, PBOT isn’t quite ready to take over processing responsibility from PPB.
After last week’s press conference I reached out to PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer to ask about the status of implementing the new authority given to them in HB 4105. “PBOT is currently developing the program that will result in PBOT staff reviewing and issuing citations for moving violations from the automated enforcement cameras,” Schafer said.
Once the PBOT agents are on board, the plan is to divide responsibilities on reviewing the cases and citations. PBOT has three types of automated enforcement: “dual enforcement intersection cameras” that capture speed and traffic signal compliance, cameras mounted inside mobile speed vans, and fixed speed cameras along high crash corridors. Schafer said PPB will continue to handle the first two and PBOT will take over responsibility for fixed speed cameras.
With 32 of these cameras currently up and running and more to come in the months and years ahead, it will be imperative to create an efficient processing workflow. And with PBOT taking on some of these duties, it will reduce workload on PPB officers and free them up to handle things like crash investigations and other more serious crimes.
It’s unclear how the shift in personnel from PPB to PBOT might impact the total camera program revenue. For the two years of 2021 and 2022, PBOT reported revenue of $1.37 million (about 70% of which goes to state of Oregon and the remainder pays for operation of the program with any leftover funds going to safety projects). In those two years PBOT spent about $173,000 on PPB staff expenses. With double the amount of cameras on the street in 2025, program revenue should rise commensurately.
Schafer at PBOT says they plan to begin hiring the new enforcement agents early next year and the program should be operational by the end of 2025, “if not sooner”.
— Learn more about PBOT’s automated enforcement camera program and see a list of current locations on their website.