The in basket: Jo Clark wrote to say, ” Nearly every time I travel through the stop light on Marine Drive/Kitsap Way I see the blue light come on the back of the signal to indicate someone not getting through the intersection before the light changes to red. I am wondering if we are paying some company to be allowed to use these, because it has been years since I’ve seen a police car watching for culprits.
“With budget cuts everywhere I can understand that perhaps the police can’t patrol these lights,” Jo said, “but if we are paying for them to operate regardless, I have to wonder how much it might save to cancel the contracts.
“I never see any police cars monitoring them any more,” she said. “I have in the past. And if we don’t have enough police to monitor them, are we wasting money to maintain this ‘trap’?
The out basket: The lights don’t necessarily indicate that someone has run a red light, only that the light has changed to red. The lights allow an officer viewing an intersection from the side to know when the light he can’t see the front of becomes red, and he then can decide if someone blows it.
Lt. Pete Fisher of Bremerton police says, “The lights are a great tool for officers when they observe a red light violation from a different direction than the violator. It provides solid visual evidence that a violation occurred, when they cannot testify to the fact that they saw the violator’s light turn red.
Jeff Collins of the city signal shop says, “As far as I know, all the blue lights are still in operation and still used by the police department.
“They were installed by city personnel and maintained by city staff. The lights are LED so the only maintenance would be a failure or cleaning on our annual lamp change and cleaning cycle.”
The simple and proven method to reduce red light running is to increase the yellow light time.
Bremerton’s yellow times are about a half second too short as indicated in the REdflex Violation Data. The majority of the straight thru violations occur in the first 27/100th of a second.
Upon information and belief; Peter Fisher and Jeff Collin have never made any effort to properly adjust Bremerton’s yellow light timing.
By not properly adjusting the yellow light time, the city of Bremerton under the guidance of Peter Fischer, has put profit over safety.
Redflex Inc. Is a private for profit company that owns, operates and maintains the Bremerton Red light cameras, they also have replaced the traffic control acctuators with their own and also provide the actual red light bulb.
It is a foriegn, for profit company that now makes the decision if a red light violation has occurred in the City of Bremerton. Supposedly a BPD officer reviews the Redflex Infraction but that BPD officer is not always on duty when his name is signed (under the penalty of perjury) in Arizona. The infraction originates from Arizona and is printed and sent forth from Arizona by us mail for the purpose of collecting money.
If you contest the ticket be aware that Judge Docter has been known to employee a unsworn, unappointed and unqualified “judge” to hear the Redflex cases.
In conclusion: Upon information and belief; the enforcement of RedLight violations in Bremerton has been corrupted by a private company who does profit off of violations.
The city has put profit over safety by doing nothing to properly adjust the yellow light time.
…… not to mention the photo enforced warning signs that are required by law are improperly placed and do not meet MUTCD requirements.
It’s all verifiable, factual information that is readily available by public record.
Red light running bad. Blue lights good. Thank you Fisher and Collins for your service to the community. Thank you city of Bremerton for keeping us safe.