Red-light cam payment rate jumps

Late last month, we talked about how HPD was reporting a 25 percent payment rate through the end of 2006 for tickets given via the city's new red-light camera system. The department said that percentage could grow as more citations issued last year came due — violators have 45 days to pay their tickets — and apparently that's true: According to the Chronicle, the payment rate jumped to more than 60 percent when payments made in January were factored in. What's more, 70-plus percent of the people who got tickets in September and October, the first two months the cameras were working, had paid their fines by the end of January. Better late than never, we suppose.

The official payment rate for November was 60 percent, the last month for which the payment deadline has passed. For the three months ending in November, the payment rate was 64 percent; police still expect some late payments to add to that percentage. Because the camera-issued citations are civil, violators who don't pay can't be arrested, but their cases can be sent to collection agencies. HPD reported most people who got a camera ticket paid it after receiving one notice, but some did wait until they got a second notice or the collection agency came calling. We guess the threat of bad credit just doesn't faze some people.

An interesting bit of information: During the first three months the cameras were online, 43 people who got citations contested their tickets, and about 40 percent of those had their tickets dismissed. Officials said the number of tickets dropped after being contested would be tiny because it's so hard to fight photographic evidence that you ran a red light. So far, that seems true: Some of the tickets were dismissed because license plates were obscured in the photos, so the citations were send to the wrong driver, the Chron reports.

There are now 30 red-light cameras across Houston, with another 20 coming in the next few months.