Sacramento’s red light camera program has been shut down by the Sheriff’s Office. Here’s why

Cameras aimed at capturing images of drivers running red lights at more than 20 intersections throughout Sacramento County are no longer in service after sheriff’s officials recently shut down the program, which had been losing money.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office managed red light cameras at 24 intersections, including 13 locations in unincorporated parts of the county and 11 within Sacramento city limits.

But the Sheriff’s Office shut down its red light camera program on Sunday after the county’s $898,000 contract with Redflex Traffic Systems ended Feb. 21, said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Amar Gandhi.

He said traffic citation fines were supposed to fully fund the total costs, which included the price of the Redflex contract and the cost of four sheriff’s employees managing the red light camera program. But the Sheriff’s Office has had to use its own money fill in the program’s budget deficit.

“The program was intended to be cost-neutral. It was never meant to generate revenue,” Gandhi said Thursday. “The fact that it’s losing money is why we’re shutting it down.”

The sheriff’s spokesman said he was working on gathering figures about the red light program, including the amount of its budget deficit, the cost of the sheriff’s employees who managed it and how much money it had received from citation fines. Gandhi said he did not have those figures and was hoping to release those details by early next week.

He did say the red light camera program has resulted in more than 17,000 traffic citations dating back to 2011 that remained open cases in traffic court, including cases in which the accused driver failed to appear in court.

The Sheriff’s Office has reassigned its four employees who once managed the red light camera program, to other roles within the Security Services division. Gandhi said the Sheriff’s Office wants to focus on its mission of suppressing violent crime and other criminal activity.

“If those costs don’t make any sense, then why should we be managing the whole program?” Gandhi said. “We don’t investigate traffic accidents in the unincorporated areas.” The California Highway Patrol is tasked with investigating those collisions.

Representatives of Redflex Traffic Systems, an Arizona-based company acquired by Verra Mobility in June 2021, did not respond Thursday to requests from The Sacramento Bee seeking comment.

What happens to the red light cameras?

The red light cameras still remain at those two dozen intersections throughout the county. It’s unclear what will happen to them. Gandhi said sheriff’s officials no longer access any data from them or maintain them.

In Sacramento, city officials created a red light camera program in 1999. The city managed the program through 2003, at a loss of about $50,000 a year, according to a September 2019 Sacramento city staff report.

The city then entered a memorandum of understanding that handed over administration of its red light camera program to the county. That meant the city would not receive any money from traffic citations, but it essentially burdened the county with operational costs of the program.

The Sheriff’s Office has informed Sacramento officials the county agency will no longer be providing red light camera enforcement services, said city spokeswoman Gabby Miller. There’s no indication the city will once again oversee the red light cameras in Sacramento.

“City staff will coordinate with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office to determine the next steps for transition related to the removal of the camera housing, signage and any other material, but there are currently no plans for the city to oversee the program,” Miller said in an email.

Gandhi said it will be up to Redflex to decide how to take down the cameras, equipment that belongs to the company.

In 2019, Sacramento County’s red light camera program was suspended for about eight months after a contract with another vendor, Conduent, was abruptly terminated.

Before then, the county had a contract with Redflex for a decade, starting in 2008, until December 2018. The county had switched vendors after Conduent received a higher score from California Highway Patrol and Sheriff’s Office representatives during a bidding process for a new contract.

Conduent wasn’t operating cameras, because the company failed to acquire proper permits for those camera locations, according to an Aug. 20, 2019, Sacramento County staff report. Negotiations to fix the situation broke down, and the Conduent contract was terminated. A Conduent representative at the time said the company met its obligations, and there was no basis to end the contract.

The county went back to Redflex and agreed in August 2019 to a two-year, nearly $1.8 million contract with the Arizona-based vendor to get the Sacramento-area cameras running again.

The sheriff’s spokesman said the agency has no plans to revamp the red light camera program or seek a contract under different terms with Redflex.

“At the same time, we can never say never,” Gandhi said.

Cameras in Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove and Citrus Heights

Even though the Sheriff’s Office is contracted to provide police services in Rancho Cordova, city spokesman Maria Chacon Kniested said the Rancho Cordova Police Department is still operating the city’s own red light camera program.

Rancho Cordova’s red light cameras are at Zinfandel Drive and White Rock Road; Zinfandel Drive and Olson Drive; Sunrise Boulevard and Coloma Road; and Sunrise Boulevard and Folsom Boulevard, according to the Police Department’s website.

In Elk Grove, Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jason Jimenez said the department continues to operate its own red light camera program which is administered through a Redflex contract.

Elk Grove’s cameras are at the intersections of Elk Grove Florin Road and Bond Road; Elk Grove Boulevard and Bruceville Road; Laguna and Franklin boulevards; Laguna Boulevard and Bruceville Road; and Laguna Boulevard and Laguna Springs Drive.

Red light cameras are still operational in Citrus Heights, as well, said Lt. Michael Wells, who oversees the Police Department’s red light camera program run by the traffic division.

“We do still utilize the red light camera program, and in 2021 our contract was approved for a 5 year extension which will take us into 2026,” Wells told The Bee.

According to the city’s website, there are 10 red light cameras in Citrus Heights, most of them on Greenback Lane or Sunrise Boulevard, including one at the intersection of those two major thoroughfares.