CHICAGO (WLS) — Are Chicago speed cameras really accurate?
The I-Team is uncovering testing reports that raise concerns about the accuracy of some cameras.
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The city’s own reports show some cameras could be slightly “off.” Now, some people are wondering if they should have been ticketed while the city says the cameras follow federal standards.
There are 178 speed cameras catching violators in Chicago, and 34 more are on the way.
You can get a ticket for $35 if you exceed the speed limit by 6-10 mph. If you go over by 11 mph or more, you will get a $100 fine.
The cameras are supposed to slow drivers down near parks and schools. But are they always right?
“I believe a lot of these lights, trap lights, to be honest, moneymakers, not for safety,” said Genevieve Barlow, who was ticketed.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the I-Team obtained recent calibration reports from five cameras across the city.
Mark Wallace from the group Citizens to Abolish Red Light Cameras says the cameras near Horner Park and Washington Park are among those that his organization gets the most complaints about from drivers.
“Their own information shows that their equipment is off by 0.62 miles an hour,” Wallace said.
The I-Team found that the city’s own Radar Sensor Calibration Verification reports, completed by a private company, show that the five cameras could be inaccurate.
Those reports say the “radar has an accuracy of less than or equal to 0.62 mph,” which is “equal or better than +/- 1 mph accuracy … as specified by the manufacturer.” That means if your ticket says you were going 36 mph, you could have only been driving 35.38 mph. If it says 26, maybe, you were only going 25.38.
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“They could be going 25.38 miles, which is not 26. So, by their own information, those tickets should not be issued,” Wallace said. “What that means is that people should get their money back. Any tickets that the city has issued at 26 miles an hour and 36 miles an hour, they should get that money back.”
Wallace says that could also mean some people who were ticketed for going 11 miles per hour above the limit should have instead been clocked in that 6-10 threshold and gotten a $35 ticket instead of a $100 ticket.
But the city doesn’t see it that way. A Chicago Department of Transportation spokesperson saying said the information “confirms that the radar system is accurate within the +/- 1 mph margin of error required by Illinois law and national standards established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).”
The city says the cameras are allowed to be off by plus or minus 1 mph.
ABC7 shared our findings with ticketed drivers like Lavon Giles.
“Well, I think it’s – I think it’s bad,” Giles said.
And Barlow says she has been ticketed at one of the locations for going 36 in a 30.
“I’m upset about it, because I received the ticket more than once,” Barlow said.
Overall, the city’s cameras are making millions. The I-Team found that from January 2023 through the end of February of this year, the city fined drivers almost $144 million from about 3 million tickets. Of that amount, more than $90 million came from people speeding in that 6-10 mph threshold. If we break it down further, the city fined drivers a little more than $40 million for going 6 mph over the speed limit.
As for the five cameras in question, three of them are among the top 10 grossing locations in the city for the most 6-10 mph tickets.
“It’s off… It’s not 6 miles an hour over the speed limit, it’s less than that,” Wallace said.
The city says accuracy ranges can also work in a driver’s favor. But critics say the cameras should be accurate, especially when ticketing drivers going only 6 mph over the limit.
ABC7 also reached out the company which owns the speed cameras and have not yet heard back.
READ MORE | Some Chicago red light camera intersections have shorter green lights, rack up millions in fines
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