NEWPORT BEACH : Council Counseled to Go Slow on Radar

Council members said Monday they still want to use photographic radar to nab speeding motorists in the city despite warnings from the police chief and city manager about the high costs.

“The area I live in, there are so many little children,” Councilwoman Evelyn R. Hart said. “Personally, I’d like to start this.”

The council directed Police Chief Arb Campbell and City Manager Kevin J. Murphy to investigate the costs for a short-term pilot program after police officials reported that a yearlong program would cost $100,000 to implement.

But Campbell indicated that such a program may not even be necessary, saying speeding is not that great a problem in Newport Beach. He said speeding is to blame in only a small percentage of the city’s traffic collisions. Most accidents, he said, are caused by unsafe turns and right-of-way violations.

In addition, he said, Police Department statistics show an 11% decrease in the number of traffic collisions during the first five months of this year compared to the same time period last year. Officers also wrote 7.8% more tickets during the first five months of this year than over the same period of time in 1991.

Furthermore, the speed-related accident rate in Newport is lower than in Pasadena, where special radar units with cameras have been recording speeders since June, 1988. The speed-related accident rate in that city has dropped only 7% in the past four years, Campbell said.

“Citywide, we are slowing traffic down,” Campbell said.

If the city were to implement the expensive radar program, revenues from traffic tickets would not cover the cost of running the program, police said.