A key D.C. Council member wants to change the District's photo-radar program to ensure that it promotes safety and does not just generate revenue.
Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3) said city officials recently allowed a contract to expire with the outside company, Affiliated Computer Systems, that processes photo-radar citations. That lapse gives the council a chance to alter the program, she said.
Patterson criticized the contract, saying that it has been too costly and that more of the work should be done by the city. The contract has been extended three times since May, at a cost of $4.2 million.
"We should be promoting public safety with the program," Patterson said. "I have a concern that we are simply generating revenue."
This year, D.C. police have issued more than 350,000 speeding citations and have collected more than $20 million with the aid of the photo-radar devices. Since 2001, when the program began, police have used the devices to issue more than 1.1 million tickets and collect more than $62 million in fines.
Patterson's push to change the program comes as police officials have said they plan to expand the initiative, which is in 70 "enforcement zones" across the city.
Cameras and radar devices are mounted in eight patrol cars and at a stationary location on Florida Avenue NE. Police plan to add cars and fixed locations in coming weeks, said Lt. Byron Hope, the department's traffic and safety coordinator.
Officers operate the devices, and the contractor develops the film and creates the tickets. Police review photos before tickets are issued, Hope said.
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said that the program has made roads safer and drivers less aggressive and that it has reduced traffic fatalities. As of Friday, 43 people had been killed on District roads, compared with 63 during the same period last year, statistics show.
"What is more important, saving lives or rejecting a contract because the process may not have been followed exactly?" Ramsey wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Post. "If errors occurred, then let's correct them, but do not cancel something that saves lives."
Patterson and others, however, questioned the locations that police have picked to deploy the devices, arguing that some spots have seemed designed to generate cash, not reduce crashes.
Critics said the council should use the contract renewal as an opportunity to change the program.
"We want a full and complete set of rules that will govern where [the devices] may be used and how they can be used," said Lon Anderson, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.
In May, city officials did not submit a contract with Affiliated Computer Systems to the Council for approval. Instead, they granted temporary extensions. Council members have been critical of agencies for renewing contracts without council approval when those deals exceed a $1 million limit.
Ramsey referred specific questions about the contract to the Office of Contracting and Procurement, which he said handled much of the matter. Janis Bolt, a spokeswoman for the contracting office, would say only that her boss, interim Chief Procurement Officer Herbert R. Tillery, testified about the issue last month before the Council. Tillery could not be reached for comment.
In his testimony before the Committee on Government Operations, though, Tillery said 23 contracts -- including the photo-radar agreement -- that exceeded $1 million had not been brought to the council for approval. He testified that city officials had been drafting legislation to get council approval for those contracts.
Patterson, whose Judiciary Committee oversees the police department, said that city officials approached her last week to introduce the emergency legislation to allow renewal of the temporary contract and that she refused. Patterson said no other council members had introduced the legislation by the end of last week.
