County Soon Will Issue Automated Speed Tickets

Police Consider Sites For 12 Traffic Cameras

Montgomery County police say they expect to be issuing citations to speeders caught by cameras by the end of the year, as long as there are no hitches in selecting a contractor to provide the equipment.

Police Capt. Thomas Didone, director of the department's special-operations division, said this week that police are already deploying "stealth pads" -- electronic devices that measure traffic speed -- around the county to determine where speed cameras should be deployed. He would not specify their locations, except to say that some are in Bethesda and others are in the Shady Grove area.

Didone said the pads -- black and smaller than a person's palm -- are so subtle that drivers do not see them on the pavement.

Provided all goes well in negotiating a contract with a vendor to provide the speed-camera equipment, Didone said, his goal is to begin issuing warning citations by year's end. After a month, the department will begin sending out tickets.

Didone said the department has the funding to acquire six camera-equipped vans that can be moved around the county. There is also funding to install six fixed cameras in areas where drivers are undeterred by enforcement efforts.

Police will deploy the cameras in residential areas and school zones with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or slower.

Drivers who are recorded speeding 10 mph or more over the limit will be fined as much as $40. The violations will not cause points to appear on a driver's record and can be challenged in District Court.

Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), who leads the council's public-safety committee, said the cameras will improve the county's ability to reduce speeding in neighborhoods. The cameras, he said, have "the advantage of being more of a deterrent than speed humps."

The cameras have had a bumpy road on the way through the General Assembly. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) twice vetoed bills authorizing speed cameras, citing concerns about government intrusion into private lives, but this year the House and Senate overturned his second veto. That bill, chiefly shepherded by Del. William A. Bronrott (D-Montgomery), allows cameras only in Montgomery.

The county will join nearly two dozen communities around the nation in using such devices to enforce speeding laws. The District has had a speed-camera program since 2001.

Andrews said he was not worried about privacy rights. "No one has a right to drive unsafely on a public street, so I don't think it's a legitimate concern," he said.

Didone said the police will conduct a campaign in November to alert drivers to the cameras and to solicit a name for the program. For now, he said, the effort is called "Go slow, Montgomery." The vans carrying the cameras will be marked with the name of the program.

Didone said residents are already suggesting to police where the cameras should be used. The department is creating a program Web site through which, Didone said, residents will be able to submit suggestions for speed-camera locations.

Twenty-four police department employees will oversee the speed cameras as well as the county's automated red-light cameras, Didone said.