College Station drops red light advertising campaign

Recently released e-mails and documents show that the City of College Station was planning a $10,000 advertising campaign to persuade voters to keep red light cameras.

The campaign, which included radio, television and newspaper ads, would have been paid for with public funds.

In the e-mails, city officials discuss the tactics and level of aggression to use in the campaign and suggest creating special-interest groups to support red light cameras.

"That communication was simply planning purposes and discussion," said College Station Assistant Public Communications Director Wayne Larson.

A Freedom of Information Act request of the documents was made by Jim Ash of Take Back Your City, the anti-red light camera political action committee.

Ash posted the documents on the organization's Web site, civilviolation.com.

The city's planning department informed officials the proposed campaign would be in violation of Texas election code, and changes have been made, Larson said.

"We are doing a direct mail voter education piece that will provide facts about the program," Larson said. "We are not spending any money on advertising."

Public access to the advertising-related documents and e-mails contributed to the city's change of plans, Ash said.

"I think those emails show that the city fully intended to do a significant ad campaign. People that are busy about the government's work don't send e-mails like that to the local cable company," Ash said. "The city's clearly interested in forming special interest groups to take the city's side of the issue."

A recent survey of College Station residents likely to vote found that 64 percent support red light cameras.

The survey was funded by Keep College Station Safe, a political action committee partially funded by American Traffic Solutions, said ATS Communications Director Josh Weiss.

"We're making some donations to Keep College Station Safe," Weiss said. "We're obviously in support of keeping the cameras."

The donation amounts were not disclosed.

According to Keep College Station Safe, red light violations and accidents are down by nearly 50 percent since the program's inception.

"They're the only people on planet Earth who are claiming that," Ash said. "They give no data. They give no source."

There has not been a fatal accident at a red light camera intersection in the past nine years, Ash said, and no fatal accidents are on the city records for Harvey Road at Munson Avenue, one of the city's red light camera locations. The Sept. 8 fatal motorcycle accident at the intersection of Wellborn Road and Joe Routt Boulevard was not at a red light camera intersection.

"Southwest Parkway at Texas remains four times as dangerous as Harvey at Munson. When the city's worried about safety, they do engineering changes," Ash said. "If red light cameras really prevented accidents they would have put one at 2818 and George Bush. Instead, they reengineered the intersection."

Red light cameras are about revenue, not safety, Ash said.

"Those companies have a profit interest in keeping you running a red light. If people stopped running red lights tomorrow, ATS would go out of business," Ash said. "They have no interest in preventing accidents."

The red light camera special election will take place on Nov. 3.

The last day to register to vote in the election is Oct. 5.

Students can register at www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqvr.shtml