The company that provides red light cameras to  18 of the 25 New Jersey municipalities in the state's pilot program has released a video defending their use.

Scottsdale,Arizona-based American Traffic Safety (ATS) interviews public officials and police personnel in Brick, Glassboro and Union Township touting the improved safety at the intersections where the cameras have been installed and addressing some of the bigger complaints about the cameras.

In the video, Chief Alex Fanfarillo, Glassboro Police Department says, "It's not about money, it's about safety." He adds, "If we can eliminate or bring down to a bare minimum that occurrence at an intersection there is no better reward for us as a police department, town, borough and municipality to have such a proactive system at that intersection. It speaks for itself."

Dan Zieser, Director of the Union Township Police Department, denies that people jam on their brakes when the see the red light cameras and cause more accidents. "We have seen none of that," claims Zieser.

Brick police officer reviews red light camera footage
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Each violation, according to  Captain John Rein of Brick Township, is reviewed before a ticket is issued.

"The officers have to look at every violation. They have to look at the photos, match the license plate and match the vehicle and make sure everything is in order with that and also look at the 12 seconds of video. Pictures alone will not tell you if it's a violation. You can see in the video if a person may have made an attempt to stop and didn't actually complete the violation. It is a check and balance."

The video does not address the main reason the state has suspended the red light camera program: the timing of yellow lights.

The Christie administration last week announced the suspension of the Red Light Running Automated Enforcement Program (RLR) until most of the towns in the pilot program can certify that the timing on the yellow light signal conforms to the prescribed statute.

 

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