PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 City police officials say red light cameras could soon be part of Port St. Lucie\u2019s efforts to reduce traffic crashes and aggressive driving on local roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of traffic crashes that result in injury and or death either are related to alcohol consumption and angle crashes. Those are specific to the city of Port St. Lucie. That\u2019s what we found in our research of data,\u201d said Master Sgt. Dominick Mesiti, public information officer for the Port St. Lucie Police Department.<\/p>\n
Mesiti said the department\u2019s push for red light cameras stems partly from community concerns. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnother reason why we\u2019re looking at red light cameras is one of the primary complaints of our citizens is aggressive driving, aggressive driving including excessive speeding and red light running,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Police say the cameras would help fill enforcement gaps and discourage reckless behavior on busy roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cUtilizing technology such as red light cameras is a force multiplier,\u201d Mesiti said. \u201cObviously there\u2019s likely hundreds of intersections throughout the city. Obviously we can\u2019t put an officer at every intersection 24-7. This again being the force multiplier is just another part of technology that we\u2019re looking at implementing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each potential violation caught on camera would go through a verification process. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to assign manpower to review the photographic violations to ensure a violation did occur prior to it being sent out,\u201d Mesiti said.<\/p>\n
If approved, drivers caught running red lights would face a civil infraction rather than a moving violation. <\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s going to be different than a Florida state statute citation. This is an infraction fine and it does not include points on the license, so it will be different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ten intersections have been identified as the most likely sites for the first cameras, including:<\/p>\n
Cashmere Boulevard and St. Lucie West BoulevardSouthwest Tradition Parkway and Southwest Village ParkwaySouthwest Bayshore Boulevard and Southwest Port St. Lucie BoulevardPeacock Boulevard and St. Lucie West BoulevardSouthwest Gatlin Boulevard and Southwest Port St. Lucie BoulevardCalifornia Boulevard and St. Lucie West BoulevardSouthwest Gatlin Boulevard and Southwest Savona BoulevardU.S. Highway 1 and Southeast Leonard RoadU.S. Highway 1 and Southeast Port St. Lucie BoulevardNorthwest Bayshore Boulevard and Southwest Crosstown Parkway<\/p>\n
Mesiti said the technology will not replace traditional traffic enforcement. \u201cOur regular patrol officers and our regular traffic unit officers, part of their enforcement expectations are to address red light running as part of their daily traffic enforcement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If the city moves forward, the department will issue a request for proposals to determine how the program will be implemented. <\/p>\n
\u201cOnce that happens, then we have to select, is it going to be a trial basis or is it going to be all these top 10 intersections? That decision hasn\u2019t been made yet. It\u2019s somewhere between a couple intersections as a trial phase or all 10 intersections at once,\u201d Mesiti said.<\/p>\n
The proposal is scheduled to be reviewed again at the Nov. 24 Port St. Lucie City Council meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 City police officials say red light cameras could soon be part of Port St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-45733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}