North Las Vegas plans to put cameras at some intersections

North Las Vegas is moving ahead with plans to place cameras at some intersections to collect data city officials hope will convince state lawmakers to let police use cameras to cite drivers for traffic violations.

The City Council agreed on Wednesday to let police place "red light" cameras at two undisclosed intersections, a move that has been criticized by civil liberties officials.

"You can't change what you can't document," Councilwoman Stephanie Smith said. "I see this as saving lives."

North Las Vegas Police Chief Mark Paresi joined Las Vegas police Sgt. Robert Roshak in saying data gathered at the intersections will help convince lawmakers to allow the use of cameras in traffic law enforcement.

Although the Nevada Legislature hasn't banned surveillance cameras, it has banned the use of red light cameras to ticket drivers.

In the past, "we never had statistics," Roshak said. "We didn't have enough good information to counter some of the questions we were asked" by lawmakers.

Las Vegas police are considering putting data-gathering cameras at two intersections.

No tickets will be issued or disciplinary action taken against drivers caught on camera disobeying traffic laws, Paresi said.

The goal will be to measure the magnitude of the problem of drivers disobeying traffic signals. Results would be given to the Legislature in 2009.

"We were involved in over 4,500 traffic accident investigations last year in North Las Vegas," Paresi said. "We had 29 (traffic-related) fatalities. Our traffic carnage continues to rise at a rapid rate."

Paresi believes red light cameras will eventually help decrease those numbers.

Mark Etzbach, a spokesman for Redflex Traffic Systems, said such cameras have made "a tremendous public safety impact" in other communities.

"Culver City, California, has been able to maintain a 65 percent reduction in right-angle collisions" since cameras were put into place, he said.

Other cities have experienced up to 95 percent reductions in accidents at such intersections, he said.

Nevada legislators have in the past said red light cameras are an invasion of privacy.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, agreed.

"Do we really want more cameras?" he asked. "The real question is how that information is going to be used, who it is going to be used by and what are the safeguards."

Lichtenstein said cameras can be used to track people. "All sorts of data are being collected, and very poor track is being kept of them. The public doesn't know where it is ending up."

North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon asked whether the cameras could be used after an accident to help determine fault.

"They are not to be used for anything but this study," Paresi said.

Police will conduct a six-month "blind test" using the cameras, then add signs alerting drivers to the cameras' presence to see if there's a slowdown in red light running.

The data will help create "a pretty succinct picture of red-light running in North Las Vegas," Paresi said.

The cameras will be provided free for the initial testing, he said. If city officials choose to use the cameras for red light enforcement, they must pay for the cameras' use.