No date set for full monitoring of Auckland's red-light cameras

Friday, 5 October 2018

Only half of Auckland's 12 red light safety cameras will be monitored at any one time.

There is no date in sight for police to enforce more than six of Auckland's growing network of red-light safety cameras.

Auckland Transport has just commissioned the second batch of six, but can't say when all of them will be simultaneously enforced by police.

Police declined to be interviewed on their practice of monitoring only six at any one time, and have changed their explanation.

'Police has an existing agreement with Auckland Transport to process infringements for any six red light cameras at any given time,' was their initial response to Stuff in a statement.

* Auckland Transport's red light cameras haven't worked for years

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* Auckland could add six red light cameras a year for the next decade**

However, when queried on the nature of the 'agreement', a further police statement said there was 'no formal agreement.'

'The enforcement of six Auckland Transport red light cameras is something Police has done for many years,' police said.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has made strong public statements about the need for police to step up enforcement of red-light running, to match the council's funding of six additional cameras a year to reach an eventual 42.

'We expect the police in every case to follow up with a prosecution or the issuing of an infringement notice,' Goff told Stuff.

However, he seemed unaware that Auckland Transport's current re-negotiation of a Memorandum of Understanding with police on the red light issue did not specify how many cameras would be enforced at any one time.

A Stuff investigation in May found Auckland's previous array of red-light cameras had not resulted in a single ticket being issued for nearly three years.

Auckland Transport had installed cameras at 11 intersections in 2014 and 2017, at a cost of $1.2 million.

'These sites were developed by Auckland Transport, however, enforcement did not eventuate,' Superintendent Steve Greally, national manager road policing said at the time.

Five people died in accidents involving red light running in Auckland last year, more than the toll over the previous five years.

Auckland's red-light crash figures have steadily climbed to 477 last year, compared with 387 reported crashes in 2012.

The Stuff investigation prompted Goff to urge the speedy installation of the first six of 42 new cameras costing the council $8m over the next decade.

'We are rotating enforcement to the areas of highest risk,' said AT's Randhir Karma, group manager network management and safety, of the plan to enforce only half of the current 12 cameras at any one time.

Karma said the new Memorandum of Understanding should be agreed with police in the next months, but the question of how many cameras would be monitored was a 'different issue.'

He believed the existence of more sites, even when not being monitored, and warning signs, would improve driving habits.

'We're also hearing from the police that their system of enforcing infringements is antiquated, under stress, and not coping.'

In a statement to Stuff police referred to the capacity of its Police Infringement Processing System (PIPS), and said it 'would need to be replaced at some point'.

'In terms of processing more cameras, there are other systems and processes which would have to be considered capacity-wise,' said the statement, without explaining why it prevented six more cameras being monitored in Auckland at any one time.

Goff has written to the Police Minister Stuart Nash, seeking an assurance that red-light running infringements are pursued. Nash is expected to consider the letter when he returns to the Beehive next week.