Now we learn from the Daily Herald that Schaumburg plans to turn off their red light cameras for good on Tuesday, July 14th after complaints from over 50 residents and businesses. They state “a new study shows that even at the most accident-prone intersections, the cameras would have little effect.”

Hmmm…that’s exactly what the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition (SFC) told the Schaumburg Village Board over 9 months ago.

While it is certainly good that the red light cameras have been turned off, Mayor Larson & the Village Board have some serious explaining to do. They ignored 9 scientific studies presented back on September 23rd, 2008 (prior to the implementation of the Red Light Cameras) which showed that red light cameras are ineffective in reducing accidents and in many cases make intersections more dangerous.

The SFC presented these studies in hopes Mayor Larson and the Village Board would realize that installing red light cameras have no safety benefits and the company Red Speed Illinois, who got $36/ticket, was giving them bad info.

Unfortunately, Mayor Larson and Trustee George Dunham ridiculed the SFC at the Board Meeting for presenting the studies from institutions like Virginia Department of Transportation, University of South Florida, The Washington Post, North Carolina A&T University, Ontario Ministry of Transportation, and the Australian Road Research Board. The Board ignored our evidence & recommendations and the Board voted 5-0 in favor of the cameras.

Schaumburg officials next Tuesday will likely pull the plug for good on their use of red-light cameras.

The recommendation made Thursday was based on data showing that in Schaumburg only a very small percentage of vehicle collisions are caused by traffic-signal violations.

(Police Chief) Howerton said the village board’s directive has been to use red-light cameras only for accident prevention. But a new study shows that even at the most accident-prone intersections, the cameras would have little effect.

This all could have been prevented if the Village Board would have just listened to the SFC over 9 months ago. Why did the Villlage Board choose to cozy-up to the slick salespeople of the Red Speed Illinois instead of listening to the informed citizens of Schaumburg?

Simply, Mayor Larson and the Village Board didn’t do their due diligence. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt they will be refunding the over $1 Milllion back to the victims of this little scam.

So was it all just about the money?

Schaumburg’s first red light camera pulled in over 1 Million in less than 3 months. At that pace, over a full year, it could of made $4 Million. Schaumburg had plans to install an additional 9 cameras. If those cameras had been installed and produced similar results, the annual take in tickets would have been over $40 Million. In this scenario, Red Speed Illinois would have hauled in a cool $14.4 Million and Schaumburg $25.6 million. Certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Maybe all this money was needed to help fund the unbelievable growth in the size of Village goverment over the past few years?

In 2005, Village of Schaumburg expenditures stood at a meager $118.5 Million, and in 3 short years expenditures have exploded to $197.3 Million, an 66% increase! Someone has got to pay for all of that government largess.

So if the real reason behind putting up the cameras was money, what’s the reason that Schaumburg took them down? My best guess is political pressure.

As a recent Daily Herald article stated:

During this period, the village received about 50 negative phone calls, letters and e-mails. Many angry out-of-towners threatened to boycott Schaumburg as a shopping, dining and entertainment destination.

One Trustee stated that there “were more complaints about the red light camera program than any other program in the history of the Village.”

To further back up this theory, the Schaumburg Freedom Coaliton’s anti-red light camera, Bob Garret recently conversed with State Rep. Paul Froehlich (D-Schaumburg) by e-mail. Froehlich, who is a known political ally and donor to Mayor Al Larson’s campaign fund, wrote.

From Paul Froehlich’s e-mail:

Congratulations! You won your battle in your hometown. Did you think it would happen so soon?

BTW, this kind of takes some steam out of the “throw-the-bums out” campaign, eh?

It should come as no surprise that Rep. Froehlich has recieved contributions from Red Speed Illinois in the past.

So, it was all about the money from the start. That is until the people got so mad that it became a political liability for the Village Trustees and Mayor Larson. They had to turn the cameras off or risk the chance of getting voted out of office in the next election. However, they claim it’s been about public safety all along.

How convenient is it they cite a new internal study showing that red light cameras don’t have substantial safety benefits. Why couldn’t they have read the 9 more comprehensive studies we provide them with before hand and never put up the cameras in the first place?

Certainly, the case of the red light cameras in Schaumburg shouldn’t inspire much confidence in our town’s leadership abilities and public safety decision making skills.

Perhaps we should “throw-the-bums out” of office, as Rep. Froehlich suggests, despite  finally coming to their senses on the issue of red light cameras.

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