Another black eye for Chicago's red light cameras: Drivers get m

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's red light camera program suffered another hit Thursday. City Hall agreed to a $38.75 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit that alleged Chicago failed to administer the red light program properly. Specifically, the city didn't give adequate notice to red light camera and speed camera violators.

Under the deal, more than 1.2 million people could be eligible for payments of half of whatever they paid the city for their tickets. Sit tight, everyone: Those who qualify will receive letters in months to come.

This settlement isn't a death knell for the red light program, which has raised more than $600 million in fines. And, yes, we're still in favor of these cameras if they're deployed fairly and effectively as a safety tool, not primarily a revenue-making venture. People shouldn't run red lights and if they do, cameras are one legitimate way to ticket them.

Over the years, however, Chicago's red light program has been engulfed in scandal. Tribune investigations of the program have found malfunctioning cameras and inconsistent enforcement.

•Drivers were issued millions of dollars in tickets even though city transportation officials knew that yellow light times were too short, falling below federal minimum guidelines.

•People were ticketed by speed cameras after the hours designated for ticketing in school and park "safety zones."

•In 2016, City Hall operative John Bills was sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking hundreds of thousands in bribes to help an Arizona company land tens of millions of dollars in red light camera contracts.

All of that has chipped away at the program's credibility.

 

Now, the latest embarrassment: The class-action lawsuit claimed that the city broke its own rules by failing to send a second notice of a violation before a driver's guilt was determined. The suit also claimed the city doubled the fine for late payments sooner than was allowed.

In response, the Emanuel administration changed the law to eliminate the requirement for a second notice. And the city tried to mollify drivers by giving some who hadn't gotten second notices from 2010 to 2015 a fresh chance to contest their tickets.

Emanuel's lawyers argued that those changes brought the city into compliance. But attorney Jacie Zolna pressed the class-action case. "When they passed that law and did that sneaky move, it just emboldened me," he told the Tribune. "I decided I wouldn't let them try to do that."

Good for you, Mr. Zolna. And good for those 1.2 million people who might now be getting some green from their brush with the red light cameras — assuming the Chicago City Council approves the settlement.

So, what now for this troubled program?

In 2015, after a Tribune investigation revealed that thousands of drivers were being unfairly ticketed, we said: "Chicagoans have no reason to trust those cameras. If City Hall can't make them an honest safety tool, then yank them out."

In 2017, honest isn't a word we'd use for this program.

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