Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced a slightly modified version of his plan to pepper the city with speed cameras that included scaled-back hours as he sought Wednesday to win support from wary City Council members.Emanuel said he was open to compromise with aldermen, some of whom have portrayed the plan as a money grab by the city, but wouldn't change his goal of keeping kids safe near parks and schools."What I'm not open to, and what I won't compromise on, is whether we need to do this to have people abide by the law," the mayor said."This works as a deterrence," he said of speed cameras. "It's shown time and again to do that, and that's the goal."The city has provided no research on the effectiveness of speed cameras, instead relying on statistics that suggest its existing network of hundreds of red-light cameras have reduced accident deaths.
In response to City Council concerns, Emanuel's proposed ordinance would scale back the operating hours of the cameras, which could tag speeders for fines up to $100 after a 30-day grace period following installation.Under the proposed ordinance, the city could operate cameras near schools from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, although the state law Emanuel sought gives the city from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. weekdays and until 9 p.m. Fridays.Aldermen said many local schools don't have programs later than 6 p.m.
The mayor's proposal would also shorten camera operations near parks. The cameras would operate only while parks are open instead of from one hour before opening until one hour after closing.Emanuel has also sought to ease concerns about the potentially wide reach of his proposal by casting it as a "safety zone" plan with a limited number of cameras.Both the state law and Emanuel's ordinance permit speed cameras within 1/8 mile of the city's roughly 1,800 parks and public and private schools, which would allow the administration to cover nearly half the city with speed cameras, based on a Tribune analysis.
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