By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Tucson’s mayor and council are considering whether to bring back photo enforcement cameras as the city looks at safety issues on its roads.
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During a Tuesday study session, city officials discussed safety concerns near busy intersections and moved to have the city manager develop a procurement process for a photo enforcement vendor.
Officials said they know the move would be controversial, but said it may be necessary as traffic fatalities increase.
“We’re in a situation where our number of traffic fatalities has increased 111%,” said Ward 2 Council Member Paul Cunningham. “We’ve gotta make some decisions quickly.”
Tucson is the fourth-most deadliest cities for pedestrians, according to a report by Smart Growth America.
“I think anything could possibly help decrease that, and if we’re not gonna make decisions on trying things that will help reduce the number of traffic incidents and fatalities we have, then we don’t belong up there,” Cunningham said.
13 News tracks all serious crashes in southern Arizona. We create a map, which you can see below, to identify problem areas. If you click on one of the icons on our map, you can read the story we did about the accident.
Traffic cameras in Tucson were removed in 2015 after voters approved Proposition 201, a ballot measure that made the cameras illegal in the city. That proposition would have to be repealed for the cameras to be reintroduced.
In 2016, 13 News did a story about how speeding increased when the cameras went dark.
City officials said a state measure on the ballot this November could allow voters to decide whether to ban cameras statewide for cities that do not currently have them. Cunningham said the timing is pushing the city to move quickly.
“If that ballot measure is voted on and we don’t have a contract in place, we can’t be grandfathered in; we have no choice; we’ll never be able to do it,” Cunningham said.
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According to data from Tucson, the city averaged 45 traffic-related fatalities each year in the three-year period before red light cameras were removed in 2015.
After the cameras were eliminated, fatalities in 2018 were 27% higher than in 2015. In 2019, fatalities were 48% higher than in 2015. From 2022 to 2024, fatalities rose by 111%, according to city data.
Vanessa Cascio, executive director of Living Streets Alliance, said she is glad the city is discussing traffic safety but is not sure red light cameras are the answer.
“Speed is a predominant factor of whether or not somebody’s killed in a crash, whether or not they’re driving or walking, and so what I would encourage us to look at is what are the tools that we have to manage speed on our roadways and is photo enforcement one of those tools?” Cascio said.
Cascio said she worries that adding red light cameras could take attention away from other roadway safety measures.
“Reducing roadway lanes, reducing the amount of time a person is crossing, looking at upgrading our signal timings,” Cascio said.
Cunningham said traffic safety cannot be improved with one approach.
“I think it comes down to engineering, live enforcement, visibility of officers, presence, and, of course, red light cameras are a tool in that process, but they’re not the be-all and end-all,” Cunningham said.
The city is in the early stages of potentially implementing cameras and said it is continuing to work on other roadway safety improvements.
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