Submitted by Tony B, Sacramento–
Citrus Heights residents deserve the right to vote on whether red-light cameras should continue in our city.
This program affects residents financially, legally, and personally. It can result in expensive citations, court fees, DMV points, insurance consequences, and stress for working families. A program with that much impact should not continue through contract renewals alone without direct public approval.
See related article: Citrus Heights Council votes to renew red light cameras for three years
The City’s reported contract cost is approximately $4,349.69 per month for each monitored camera approach. With 10 approaches, that equals about $43,496.90 per month and about $521,962.80 per year, before any cost-of-living increases. The City calls the program “cost neutral,” but that does not mean free. It means the program is funded by citations paid by drivers.
Residents deserve a complete public accounting of every dollar connected to this program, including:
- Total citation revenue collected
- Amount paid to Verra Mobility
- Amount kept by the City of Citrus Heights
- Amount sent to the court system
- Amount sent to the State of California
- Amount sent to Sacramento County or other agencies
- Court fees and penalty assessments
- Traffic school costs paid by drivers
- Administrative fees
- Insurance and DMV consequences for residents
The City also reported roughly 17,000 violations, with about 11,000 involving right turns on red. That means the majority of violations were not necessarily high-speed straight-through red-light runners. If this program is being justified as a life-saving safety program, the City must explain why so many citations involve right turns.
Residents deserve intersection-by-intersection safety data, including:
- Total crashes before and after cameras
- Injury crashes before and after cameras
- Fatal crashes before and after cameras
- Broadside crashes before and after cameras
- Rear-end crashes before and after cameras
- Pedestrian and bicycle crashes before and after cameras• Property damage crashes before and after cameras
- How many crashes were actually caused by right-turn-on-red violations
- Yellow-light timing at every monitored intersection
- Whether yellow-light timing was ever changed
- Whether better signs, signal timing, road design, or education were tried before ticketing
Ticket numbers are not the same as safety results. A safety program should be judged by whether serious injuries and deaths are reduced, not by how many citations are issued.
If the City is truly focused on saving lives, it should show how much money has been spent on prevention and education, such as:
- Free teen driver safety classes
- Free senior driver refresher courses
- Free community traffic safety seminars
- Defensive driving education
- Public warnings before citations
- Better signs and lane markings
- Safer intersection design
- Longer or safer yellow-light timing
If the City is collecting money from drivers but not investing meaningfully in free public safety education, then residents have a fair reason to question whether this is about safety or revenue.
The City must also prove equal treatment under the law.
No public official, city employee, police officer, elected official, contractor, department head, or government-connected person should receive special treatment — whether driving a marked city vehicle, unmarked government vehicle, police vehicle, contractor vehicle, or personal vehicle.
If a resident gets cited for a rolling right turn or red-light violation, then officials should be cited under the same standard unless there is a lawful emergency exemption.
The City should disclose:
- Every red-light camera event involving a city vehicle, police vehicle, fire vehicle, government vehicle, exempt plate, elected official, city employee, or contractor.
- Whether the event was captured by the camera.
- Whether Verra Mobility reviewed it.
- Whether Verra Mobility rejected it before citation review.
- Whether CHPD reviewed it.
- Whether a citation was issued.
- Whether the event was dismissed, voided, excused, converted to a warning, or never issued.
- The exact reason for any non-issued citation.
- Whether any windshield decal, fleet number, exempt plate, database flag, internal code, or vendor “business rule” caused the event to be treated differently.
- Whether any official or government employee received different treatment than an ordinary resident.
There should be no private escape route from the law. No badge, title, exempt plate, windshield decal, fleet number, agency status, or political position should protect anyone from enforcement that applies to the public.
The City should also release all documents necessary for public review, including:
- The full Verra Mobility contract
- Staff reports
- Payment schedules
- Citation revenue reports
- Vendor invoices
- Vendor communications
- Rejection logs
- Dismissal logs
- Camera calibration records
- Maintenance records
- Monthly management reports
- Business rules between the City and vendor
- Internal policies for government vehicles
- Records showing how citations are reviewed and approved
- Records showing how many citations were challenged and dismissed
Residents should not be told to simply “trust the process.” The process should be public, auditable, and equal.
Before this program continues, Citrus Heights should require:
- A full independent audit.
- A public vote or ballot measure.
- Annual public reporting.
- Intersection-by-intersection crash data.
- Complete revenue distribution records.
- Proof that no officials receive special treatment.
- Proof that the program reduces serious crashes.
- A commitment to spend citation revenue on free public safety education and intersection improvements.
- Removal of cameras at intersections where serious crashes are not reduced.
- Public hearings where cited residents can speak directly.
This is not just about cameras. It is about fairness, transparency, safety, money, and public trust.
If the City wants residents to believe this program is about saving lives, then prove it with facts, not ticket totals. Prove where the money goes. Prove serious crashes are reduced. Prove right-turn citations are actually improving safety. Prove public officials are treated the same as ordinary residents. Prove that education and engineering are being prioritized before punishment.
Until that proof is released, Citrus Heights residents deserve the right to vote on whether red-light cameras should continue.
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