Santa Ana officials want the city to join a state pilot program to put up automated speed cameras on streets with a history of collisions in an effort to deter drivers from speeding and to prevent traffic related deaths through citations.
It comes as state traffic safety officials ranked Santa Ana third worst in the state for speed related fatalities and injuries in 2023 for California cities with a population greater than 250,000 people, according to the latest data from the state Office of Traffic Safety.
At the same time, residents across OC this year have been raising growing privacy concerns about city officials ramping up surveillance by increasing automated license plate readers, street cameras and drones for policing.
Many worry about the footage being used by ICE.
[Read: OC Cities Look to Beef Up Surveillance Amid Privacy Concerns]
On Tuesday, city council members voted 4-2 to approve a resolution calling on state legislators to include Santa Ana in the pilot program that could cost the city up to $2 million a year to operate after they made multi-million dollar spending cuts to help balance their budget.
“Speed cameras provide a more consistent and fair way of enforcing traffic laws. They are much less reliant on discretionary traffic stops,” said Councilman Phil Bacerra, who requested the resolution asking state legislators to amend a law to include the city in the pilot program.
Councilmembers Johnathan Hernandez and Benjamin Vazquez were the dissenting votes. Councilwoman Jessie Lopez was absent from the meeting.
Vazquez said he was worried that the pictures captured by the cameras could be used by the federal government for immigration enforcement.
“Our residents are not trusting of these cameras. Our families are not trusting. ICE is still active on our streets and still coming out and they are getting into more data and just using that data to pinpoint where they can find our families so I’m hoping we can find other ways to slow down traffic in that area,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan said speeding is an issue in the city, but said they have to be realistic about the city budget, adding it can’t afford the program.
“We have to balance what the budget can bear. I do understand that there are grants, whether it’s federal or state, but I don’t want to make promises up here that we can’t keep and what we do know is that this pilot program, even in all these cities, are incredibly expensive,” she said at the meeting, ultimately voting in favor of the resolution.
The pilot program was approved as part of a state law in 2023 and implemented for the cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco as well as San Francisco County, Oakland, Glendale, San Jose and later amended to include Malibu.
It allows the select municipalities to put up and try cameras that photograph speeding cars’ rear license plates and generate citations up until the start of 2032.
At the meeting, a host of activists and residents spoke against the speed cameras, raising concerns about increasing surveillance in Santa Ana and the costs the city will incur if the program is allowed and implemented.
Tanya Navarro, organizing director with Chispa, called the resolution “irresponsible governance” amid budget cuts and called on elected officials to focus on solutions that make streets safer while respecting residents’ privacy.
“In Phil’s world, we have unlimited money for police and surveillance technology,” Navarro said at Tuesday’s meeting
“We deserve real public safety, not expensive and lazy automated tools that collect data, issue citations, and operate with little meaningful public accountability. Instead of spending millions on automated enforcement, the city should invest in proven street safety improvements, like safer road design, crosswalks, traffic calming, and pedestrian infrastructure.”
Chispa and the ACLU of Southern California also wrote a letter to council members opposing the resolution, raising privacy and surveillance concerns and calling on officials to seek cost effective alternatives to keep streets safe.
Mayor Valerie Amezcua pushed back on people raising concerns the camera could be used for mass surveillance, adding that residents already use technology like smart phones and ring cameras that can track people’s whereabouts and conversations.
“When we all sit up here as policymakers and we keep sharing that narrative of ‘we’re under mass surveillance,’ then you should not have a cell phone,” Amezcua said. “You should not have an Alexa in your home. You shouldn’t have a ring. Don’t get a new car. because if you think you’re having a conversation in your new car and it’s private? It’s not.”
Bacerra and other city officials point to two fatal car accidents on Segerstrom Avenue last year – one that killed five young adults – as an example for the need for the cameras, with staff saying speed humps can’t be installed on that street.
“These tragedies underscore the continuing fatality risks associated with excessive speeding and reinforce the need for additional speed management strategies beyond traditional enforcement,” reads a city staff report.
According to the same report, the state law includes privacy protections including restrictions on data sharing except as required by law and there has been a significant reduction in speeding in San Francisco and Oakland on the streets with the cameras.
“It’s working. It is saving lives,” Bacerra said at the meeting pointing to San Francisco.
Santa Ana leaders are not just eying speed cameras.
Earlier this year, city council members approved an up to nearly $683,000 three-year contract for five drones despite privacy and surveillance concerns, with the mayor and police department giving a demonstration of the unmanned aerial vehicles this past Saturday.
[Read: Orange County’s Police Surveillance Increases Amid Budget Woes]
The Cost of a Speed Camera
City staff are estimating an initial start-up cost for the pilot program to be $2 million for 12 cameras at six locations with an annual operating cost ranging potentially between $1.5 – $2 million a year, according to the staff report.
Staff also estimates generating $257,000 off of citations in the first month of enforcement based on data from the pilot program in San Francisco.
The expected costs, if state legislators grant officials requests. come after city leaders approved roughly $11 million in spending cuts this summer to help float the budget – including nearly $5 million to eliminate vacant positions and part-time staff spending, along with almost a million for park maintenance.
[Read: Santa Ana’s Bleak Budget Leads to Commission Purge]
Amid discussions on cuts, elected officials opted not to reduce their $420,000 budget for political aides or dial back council members’ nearly $80,000 travel budget.
Traffic Safety in OC’s Large Cities
There were a total of nearly 2,000 traffic accident related fatalities and injuries in Santa Ana in 2023, according to the latest data from the California Office of Traffic Safety which ranks crash risk in cities based on population, driving activity and amount of crashes.
Santa Ana ranked fourth worst for total traffic accident related fatalities and injuries that year out of the 15 California cities with a population greater than 250,000 people while Anaheim ranked fifth despite having more crashes – over 2,100.
The population in Anaheim is bigger than Santa Ana by about 25,000 people, according to the census.
Anaheim was also ranked fourth worst in speed related crashes and injuries among highly populated cities – just behind Santa Ana – by the state office of traffic safety.
In 2023, Irvine was ranked one of the safest cities in the state when it comes to speed related fatalities and injuries in 2023 for California cities with a population greater than 250,000 people.
That year, according to the data, there were a total of 570 crash related fatalities or injuries in Irvine and 78 were speed related.
Irvine and Anaheim are not part of the state pilot program.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
