By Sara Beth Williams–
Mike Thompson and his wife, who live in San Diego, received a red-light camera notice dated March 13, 2024, issued from Citrus Heights. The problem is, Thompson says he’s never been to Citrus Heights and also doesn’t drive a vehicle matching the one in the photo accompanying the notice.
Thompson assumed the notice was a citation and said he reached out to the City of Citrus Heights following his receipt of the alleged ticket before reaching out to The Sentinel.
“The car in the video that ran the red light was a brown Kia hatchback or crossover. We have a white Ford sedan,” Thompson said, adding that although the photo was blurry, when he compared his license plate with the license plate in the photo. He found his license plate was only one letter different, an apparent mix-up of the letters “W” and “H”.
Thompson shared an email response from The Citrus Heights Police Department dated March 28, in which the department said police staff in charge of verifying red light camera violations were spoken to after the incident and reminded them to “double-check the picture against the computer information,” which is provided to the department by REDFLEX Camera Systems.
Lt. Michael Wells confirmed the mix-up had occurred, and told The Sentinel on Thursday that the department contacted the registered owner in Southern California and explained that the courtesy notice was not a citation.
“Courtesy warnings may be issued to those that didn’t run the red light, but citations are completely vetted out and verified for accuracy,” Wells said, adding that citations are only sent out when staff are “certain” of the violator in the vehicle.
Wells explained that, due to the poor quality image, the REDFLEX Camera system incorrectly captured the license plate number in its data system of the vehicle in violation. The red light violation was then sent to Citrus Heights police for final review, and during the review, the registered owner of the vehicle with the incorrectly captured license plate number and the picture of the actual driver of the vehicle that ran the red light did not match.
When the information and images did not match, no citation was issued, Wells said. Instead, a courtesy warning was mailed, which is the department’s standard protocol in cases where the registered owner and the picture of the violator do not match.
“The purpose of that is to warn someone who may not know, that whomever is driving their car is running red lights,” Wells said regarding courtesy notices, noting that the driver could often be a relative of the registered owner who is unaware of how the vehicle is being driven. “If they learn this is occurring in the vehicle, they may limit who can drive it. Hence the reason for the courtesy warning.”
The use of red light cameras throughout the city has been a topic of contention among City Council members in the past.
In 2021, the Citrus Heights City Council narrowly agreed in a 3-2 vote to extend its contract with REDFLEX through 2026. The program’s effectiveness was also questioned by several council members during a presentation by the Police Department in a November 2023 council meeting.
Then-Mayor Tim Schaefer said during the Nov. 9 council meeting that it appeared red light cameras were “not changing anything,” as police data showed a similar number of violations were continuing to occur annually.
According to local news reports, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office stated that their red light camera program was shut down in February after the contract with the vendor ended and it was determined that their program was no longer “cost-neutral.” The Sentinel reported in March that the Citrus Heights red light camera program remains operational.
During the November council meeting, Wells noted the dangers posed by running red lights, and said 1,109 deaths were caused nationwide by such infractions in 2021. He also cited stats from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), indicating that cities which ended red light camera programs between 2010 and 2014 experienced 30 percent more fatal red light collisions.
Citrus Heights police reported that roughly 37,000 red light events were processed in 2022 by Redflex, with 17,600 sent to CHPD for review, resulting in 13,500 citations issued. About 22 percent of those citations were sent to Citrus Heights residents, according to Wells.
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