Tempe red light & speed cameras: Checking in on the numbers so far

TEMPE, Ariz. - The city of Tempe's photo radar enforcement program has been issuing citations for over a month now.

By the numbers:

From June 6 to July 9, the cameras captured almost 20,000 violations.

Out of those violations, more than 3,600 tickets were issued, and nearly 2,800 notices of violation were sent in the mail, including to rental car agencies and local businesses whose employees were driving.

"Not all of those end up in a fine," said Tom Haubold, traffic program supervisor for the Tempe Police Department. "Some of those people will end up in defensive driving school, some of them will go to court."

This initiative is part of the city's goal to reduce or eliminate deadly crashes.

"It's still kinda out of control. I don't think people are still used to seeing or having the photo enforcement in Tempe yet," Haubold said.

Violators can expect a $250 fine, with the money distributed to various city programs, including the Tempe Police Department.

"Our goal isn't to raise money and revenue right from this. Our goal is, we adopted Vision Zero, and that is to reduce and or eliminate all of our fatal collisions. The second part of that is to reduce the severity of our injury collisions that we're having. We do that by not running red lights and slowing people down," Haubold said.

Tempe PD states it's too early to tell if the program is reducing crashes or speeding, noting it will take roughly three to six months to determine its effectiveness.

What you can do:

Learn more about the photo enforcement program here.