What goes around comes around? After ending all photo enforcement several years ago, the Cities of Phoenix will soon re-start and Tempe started a month ago.

 

And behind the scenes, the Republican controlled legislature has tried and failed year-after-year-after-year, for over a decade, to ban all photo enforcement anywhere in Arizona. Some years, the ban gets passed, and the governor (when Democrat) vetoes it. Most recently, Democrat gov Hobbs vetoed it (twice if i recall correctly). Other years, the bill dies, saving the embarrassment of having a Republican governor from vetoing it (e.g. SB1419 in 2021). 

Lately, besides a bill (which would become law if passed by legislature, and signed by the governor), the Republicans who want to do away with photo enforcement have also run a concurrent resolution, e.g. this year it’s SCR1002 with language that would put it onto the ballot for voters to decide — this bypasses the governor; and requires only majority both by both houses, where Republicans hold a thin majority. For whatever reason, SCR1002 ended up being held in the House. (on a similar note, check out what Republican legislators think of Vision Zero, see ‘Vision Zero is also trying to take your gas stove away‘. Yes some legislator actually said that).

The Republican agenda expressly supports the concept of strengthening traffic safety by enforcement:

“the legislature intends to… Keep the enforcement of the laws in this state in the hands of trained law enforcement officers who are authorized by the people of this state to enforce the laws”

They, however, offer no way to get there. No money, and it appears nobody wants to do it. Proactive traffic law enforcement by humans is extraordinarily expensive. (see e.g. comment below about how few patrol officers there are in Phoenix). Another supposedly bedrock plank of the Republicanism is local control, yet year after year they’re up there trying to cram down laws to prevent cities and town from using this enforcement tool.

Is this too partisan? — please let me know what you think.

City of Phoenix Specifics

There were a series of articles on our local paper that did a good job of reporting on council action most recently Jul 15, 2025 Red-light cameras returning to Phoenix streets

Since the cameras were in operation ~ 2010 – 2018, and then stopped; there is the potential for some pretty solid safety data to compare, albeit confounded by the “covid effect”. The headlines from this study/report (which i cannot find! where is it?) is as follows (copied from a KJZZ news item):

The city’s transportation department reviewed three years of crash data before-and-after red light cameras were installed at 12 intersections and found:

30.7% reduction in red light running collisions
30.4% reduction in injuries and fatalities in all directions of travel
57% reduction in red light running crashes in the direction of travel monitored by the cameras

These figures are exactly same as the graphic that appeared with the Oct 2024 AFN article linked above.

There was an earlier article Oct 23, 2024 Phoenix City Council again to weigh traffic cameras that discussed the issue of not using the fines as revenue generation (a common misconception of photo-enforcement detractors), see “Not a money maker” that reviewed the 2018-19 fiscal years revenue. Here’s some older data regarding traffic ticket revenue — it’s a money loser.

The Oct 23 article also mentions

In August, the city administration presented the Vision Zero Community Advisory Committee with a study of red-light running cameras prepared by four professors at the University of Arizona.

I cannot find any trace of this study. It’s probably buried somewhere deep within the City’s document records system which I find very difficult to find anything. So far, here’s what I found [1]… If somebody can find it please forward it to me. It’s probably embedded into a meeting packet for that meeting. ug.

And about the increase in rear end collisions at camera-controlled intersections…

“The occurrence of rear-end collisions is notably more frequent, especially with property damage severity increasing by 16.16% during the camera operation period, while fatal and injury incidents decreased by 27.53%,” the UArizona study said.

Increases in Rear-enders have been noted and are commonly cited by camera-detractors. Let’s be clear: 1) rear-ends are less likely to produce injury, and 2) rear-ends are caused by drivers who are either or all: speeding, distracted, or following too closely. These are all infractions. They are not caused by the leading driver; every driver has a duty to maintain enough forward clearance in order to avoid a collision with the vehicle (or bicycle!) in front of them at all times.

The city of Phoenix issues tragically few proactive traffic tickets. There are approx only 40 patrol officers to cover the entire city; the chances of getting a speeding ticket are next-to-nothing.

A final note on the vote:

The contract with Verra Mobility that Council approved in a 7-1 vote – with Councilman Tom Waring not voting and Councilwoman Anna Hernandez voting against…
That apparently didn’t matter to Hernandez, who said cameras would target “areas that are Black and brown, that are working families that could be negatively impacted by fines.”
She said there are neighborhoods in her South Phoenix District where motorists must navigate streets with no sidewalks and other neighborhoods “that don’t have the proper infrastructure.”

I believe it’s well accepted that PoC suffer disproportionately from traffic violence, so I don’t like that reasoning.. And conversely it would seem to me that cameras are color blind; they issue citations to drivers who are breaking a traffic safety law. And I was mystified how and lack of sidewalks has anything to do with camera enforcement of speeding and red-lights.

City of Tempe

There’s some info from the Tempe program, which started issuing citations in June in the same article mentioned above Jul 15, 2025 article: Red-light cameras returning to Phoenix streets

In a two-week period in June, Tempe’s red-light cameras caught 952 violations while its new mobile speed units caught 1,317 speeders.

Interestingly, Tempe is using some (how many?) “kiosk” style temporary/mobile speed enforcement cameras. There was one on my way home on Warner Rd between Hardy and Priest a couple weeks ago.

Wrap Up

The traffic fatal/injury number in Arizona are horrendous. We need more pro-active enforcement; whether that be camera or police, it’s not an either-or answer.

• Arizona Traffic Deaths / Injuries by person type 2009-2023 (2024 just came out, I will update soon)

I can split these numbers by city if need be. Suffice it to say there hundreds of traffic fatalities per year in Phoenix.

Notes

[1] I found it on City’s records search page by searching on Vision Zero, and found this document, the 8/21/2024 Vision Zero Citizen’s Advisory Committee minutes, Doc# 186389 (not sure if that link lives?). Can’t find the agenda or “packet” so the study is not there. Reached out to Dr. Alyssa Ryan who gave the presentation, and she pointed me to the  Youtube recording of the meeting and presentation of a slide deck. So far, cannot find the actual study. Dr. Ryan mentions “I am working on publishing the academic side of the research soon; it has been accepted for publication. That will show up on my Google Scholar when it is available. Hopefully within the month.”

The UofA study was funded by City of Phoenix.  Another UofA researcher,  Yao-Jan Wu has a reference to what appears to be the same study.