Winnfield’s Assistant Police Chief Chuck Curry and Jessie Phillips, WPD public liaison officer, brought the program for Winnfield’s Rotary Club on March 12. The topic of greatest interest was the photo enforcement of the speed limit in the town of Winnfield.
Asst. Chief Curry, a veteran on the WPD force for the past 24 years, along with a term of five years before he took another job, emphasized that photo enforcement of the speed limit has been legal for a long time. Many cities have cameras on their traffic signal intersections, but Winnfield does not. The monitors one sees at intersections with traffic signals are sensors which detect the presence of vehicles stopped at the intersection, but have no capability to measure the speed of a vehicle.
One of the two photo enforcement cameras in Winnfield is located on Highway 167 North beside the intersection with Cotton Street. The camera is triggered after the vehicle is well past the camera. A letter-ticket is issued only on vehicles going at least 11 miles per hour over the speed limit. The camera is positioned after two 35-mile per hour speed limit signs on the highway.
The location of the camera is intended to prevent accidents at the Y-intersection with Highway 84, and has been successful. According to Asst. Chief Curry, City Police worked three accidents a month at the Highway 167-Highway 84 intersection before the camera was placed on Highway 167 near the intersection. Since the placement of the camera, they have worked no accidents at the intersection.
The other speed camera is on Grove Street going toward Winnfield’s Recreation Center. The purpose is to slow down traffic for the safety of children engaging in recreational programs at the Rec.
In response to the claim that a speed camera must be a certain distance from a speed limit sign, AC Curry noted that the state law cited by persons opposed to the cameras applies only to hand-held radar units and does not apply to the stationary cameras in Winnfield.
The tickets issued by Meditraffic which administers Winnfield’s photo enforcement system are civil tickets and do not go on a person’s record. The fine is $165, Meditraffic keeps 40% of the fines and the City gets 60%. The City uses the money to improve the tools it uses for law enforcement.
The letter sent to inform a person of the infraction and fine has a questionnaire on the back which gives an opportunity for the registered owner of the vehicle to deny being the driver at the time of the infraction and to give other information.
Curry also explained that the statement by the Louisiana Attorney General advising citizens not to pay tickets was not applicable to the photo enforcement.