Speed camera accuracy

The Baltimore Sun found that a recently installed camera on The Alameda has wrongly issued tickets, citing motorists for exceeding a 25-mph limit when the posted limit is 30 mph.The development is a setback for the mayor's goal of achieving a "zero error" program, announced after The Sun documented widespread problems with the city's automated enforcement system last year.

City officials said Tuesday, after receiving inquiries from The Sun, that the city was temporarily halting all speed and red-light camera tickets "due to complications that arose during the transition to our new vendor."Adrienne Barnes, a spokeswoman for the transportation department, said city officials found that citations also contained a "clerical error" in the portion of the tickets that instructs residents how to pay. She said the agency made the decision to suspend the camera program on Monday.

"The clerical mistakes that were recently discovered do not relate to the accuracy of the radar technology," Barnes said in an e-mail Wednesday. She added that all motorists who received the 590 tickets will receive refunds. "It is not necessary for anyone to take action or appeal the citation in order to receive a refund," she said.Curt Anderson, chairman of Baltimore's House delegation in Annapolis, said he was encouraged to see officials getting serious about fixing problems with the system."I'm pleased they suspended it until they get it right," he said. "We wanted them to get it right. We didn't want the program to continue if they were going to be giving out erroneous tickets."Rawlings-Blake emphasized Wednesday that she supports the cameras because she's concerned about the safety of school children.

"What we know is every day, people are speeding. They're speeding on the streets. They're speeding near our schools. They're endangering our kids," she said. "We also know that speed cameras reduce speeding in school zones. We need to make sure the cameras are accurate, all of the time."The erroneous tickets on The Alameda are the first indication of problems since the city revamped the program by hiring a new vendor, replacing all 83 radar-based speed cameras at a cost to the city of $2.2 million and overhauling a Police Department review process criticized as lax.