City Preparing for Two More Speed Cameras

More than 43,000 tickets have been issued to drivers since Bowie installed the first of four speed cameras in May, Acting Chief John Nesky said Tuesday.

And two more cameras are on the way.

The city has been pushing for approval of speed cameras in school zones on two county-owned roads in Bowie.

According to City Manager David Deutsch, the city’s request for county approval of speed cameras on Old Chapel and Racetrack Roads was “essentially ignored” by former County Executive Jack Johnson’s administration.   

But County Executive Rushern Baker’s administration has been more receptive, officials said. City and county officials are ironing out an agreement and cameras should be up and running in a matter of weeks, said Mayor G. Frederick Robinson.

Nesky said there will likely be a two or three week waiting period after an agreement is reached before the cameras go up.

“This isn’t a gotcha program,” Nesky said. “We want to give every opportunity to spread the word that the cameras are coming. We want you to slow down.”

The State Highway Administration recently approved the installation of two cameras on Route 197 near and along Route 450 near . The cameras went live on Jan. 17. During the first week in operation, 5,811 tickets were mailed to drivers.

Nesky told the council a high number of tickets were issued because of the volume on the heavily-traveled roads.

“Very active might be an understatement. Business is booming,” Nesky said of the two newest cameras. “We expect to see the numbers drop as people do what the program is trying to get them to do and that’s slow down.”

City officials saw such a decline in the amount of revenue generated from the city’s first two cameras on Northview Drive and Belair Drive. Since the two cameras were installed, the total fines dropped significantly—from a high of $197,105 in August to $67,160 in November.

Since May, the cameras have been triggered a total of 67,055 times. From that, 43,592 tickets were issued.

According to Bowie Police Sgt. John Knott, one a photo is taken, it is processed by the vendor—Affiliated Computer Services Inc.—and sent to the Motor Vehicle Administration for the owner's information.  A Bowie police officer must then verify that all the information is correct.

There are several reasons why a citation might not be issued, according to Knott. Speeders might not see a ticket if they have rental car tags or if there is a glare on the license plate. Sometimes there may be what Knott describes as a “vehicle failure match,” when the MVA says the tag is for a Chevy, for example, but the picture shows a Ford vehicle.

“The program is labor-intensive on our end, having to review every citation,” Nesky said.

Nesky also updated the council on a plan “still in its infancy” that would put a Bowie dispatcher in the county’s new communications center at the Maryland Science and Technology Center on the Melford property, set to open next month.

“It would be an outstanding way to bridge our own system so we don’t have to come up with an inordinate amount of money for hardware,” Nesky said. “It would be a great potential bridge between what we have now and creating our own stand-alone dispatch.”

Nesky said the biggest complaint he hears is the overloading of the county’s communications center.

“It is the inability of residents to get through to report non-emergencies and sometimes emergency situations. There are so many people trying to get through on that one number,” Nesky said.

Nesky told the council commercial burglaries in the city were down by more than 50 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year while the number of residential burglaries remained steady. There were 194 burglaries in 2009 as compared to 192 in 2010.

After a spike in citizen robberies in 2011, Nesky told the council that the city police department’s criminal investigations unit, on the job since November, was able to close six such cases.

City police are also investigating an increase in graffiti in Bowie. In response to a question by Councilwoman Diane Polangin, Nesky said the graffiti did not appear to be gang-related.

“An officer has been assigned to it and is trying to find commonalities between the incidents and do something about it,” Nesky said.