By Brandon T. Bisceglia
Milford is submitting a proposal to the state Department of Transportation to install automatic speed cameras and red light cameras.
The Board of Aldermen at their March 3 meeting gave the green light to Police Chief Keith Mello’s plan, which had already passed the Police Commission.
Speed cameras would be installed at the exit 39 intersection on the Boston Post Road North; on Gulf Street near The Academy; on Merwin Avenue at Live Oaks School; on Milford Point Road at West Shore Middle School; on Orange Avenue at Platt Tech; and at Woodruff Road north of Colony Road. Red light cameras would be added at the intersection of the Boston Post Road and Cedarhurst Lane; at the intersection of Boston Post Road and High Street intersection; and at the intersection of Boston Post Road and North Street.
“This plan is heavily focused on school zones and heavily focused on safety for our children,” Mello said.
Automated traffic enforcement devices are typically cameras installed in a given location. Red light cameras take a picture of a license plate when a car runs a red light; speed cameras take a picture when a passing vehicle exceeds the speed limit by a certain amount, typically 10 miles over the speed limit. The ticket or notice of violation is sent to the vehicle’s owner, usually without police involvement.
The state legislature in 2023 passed a law creating a program to allow municipalities to install automated enforcement devices in certain locations – particularly school zones and other pedestrian safety areas. That law requires the plan to be vetted at the municipal level and then also get approval by the state Department of Transportation.
Mello said that the police department had partnered with the superintendent of schools to send out a survey to the schools where the cameras would be installed.
“The parents of the children that are impacted, nearly 85 percent said they wanted it,” Mello said. “And some who said they didn’t want it said, ‘I’d rather you just hire 10 more police officers.’ I would too, but that’s $2 million.”
Critics of automated enforcement tools note that they circumvent due process requirements, are prone to errors, send violations to vehicle owners who may not necessarily be the driver and open the door to increased surveillance and unequal enforcement across communities.
The ACLU of Connecticut cited all of these reasons for its opposition to the state law in 2023, saying, “Connecticut needs to invest in real solutions, like traffic calming and pedestrian-supportive infrastructure, instead of putting more money into police surveillance. Red light cameras result in increasing police surveillance, while ignoring real solutions and people’s actual safety needs. We need to invest in walkable cities, not more policing.”
The state attempted to head off some of these criticisms in the law. For instance, location selection must take into account the poverty rate in the surrounding community; no more than two automated devices can placed within a qualified low-income census tract.
Mello noted one of the other requirements is that the city add signage wherever the cameras are placed, engage in an educational campaign and go through a 30-day period in which a violation only results in a warning.
“We’re trying to change behavior – that’s the goal here,” Mello said.
Alderman Win Smith, however, disputed Mello’s claim that the devices would change people’s overall behavior.
“They’ll change behavior in the area where the camera is, but there isn’t any studies or data to indicate that people actually change their behavior elsewhere,” he said.
“At least if we can change behavior by a school,” Mello countered, “that’s pretty good.”
Smith also noted that there was no guarantee that data collected by a third-party vendor be audited.
“I know that there’s a requirement in the ordinance that we passed that our private data be destroyed, but there’s no enforcement and no monitoring mechanism for that,” he said.
Smith was one of two aldermen who voted against the measure, along with Andy Fowler.