TEMPE, AZ — Since they were first installed in May, Tempe Police say their new intersection cameras caught more than 28,000 potential violations.
"It's a lot. I was really surprised," said Tom Haubold, a traffic supervisor with the Tempe Police Department. "Yellow means a warning, slow down the light is about to change. Red means you can't go into the intersection.”
Haubold says now the cameras are live, he believes numbers will begin to go down and safety will begin to improve on Tempe streets.
"Hopefully we really start to make an impact and reduce collisions by enforcing the red lights," Haubold said.
Pedestrians like Joel Adams hope the cameras could provide added safety as he sees some drivers disregard traffic signals.
"I take a couple extra seconds, look both ways, and make sure that no one else is speeding through," Adams said.
While drivers could memorize the camera locations, police have four mobile cameras they plan to move frequently throughout the city.
Haubold says the cameras are there with people like Adams and drivers in mind.
"Giving a death notification is not something that is fun to do. So that is the point of these camera systems. Let's lessen our fatalities and injuries by slowing people down a little bit," Haubold said.
Haubold says the department may consider expanding the program to additional intersections throughout Tempe if they are shown to decrease speeding and red light running.
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