Albany

The city has hired GATSO USA, a subsidiary of a Dutch company whose founder pioneered the traffic camera industry, to manage the network of red-light cameras it hopes to have online by July 1.

The contract includes a provision that effectively guarantees taxpayers won't lose money on the cameras, no matter how many citations are issued, according to a copy reviewed by the Times Union.

Under the terms, the city will rent each camera from the company for a maximum of $3,925 per month, but the total rent can never exceed the fine revenue generated each month by the cameras, which officials said are expected to number about 64 units to start.

"There will never be a dime that comes out of the city's pocket," Acting Police Chief Brendan Cox said.

At 64 cameras, the city's monthly rent payments would total $251,200 — or just over $3 million a year.

Every dollar in excess of the monthly rent will flow to city coffers. But Mayor Kathy Sheehan has insisted the system is aimed at making city streets safer for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians by changing driver behavior, not nickel-and-diming motorists.

State lawmakers voted last year to allow Albany to install the cameras for five years at up to 20 intersections, with multiple cameras permitted at each. The devices use radar to detect the speed and position of approaching cars to anticipate whether they are likely to run the light, triggering the still and video cameras.

GATSO USA, whose U.S. clients also include Des Moines, Iowa, and Columbia, Mo., is the North American division of Netherlands-based GATSO Beheer BV. It is privately owned by the family of Maurice Gatsonides, the Dutch race car driver who founded it in 1958 and who is credited with having invented the "Gatsometer" speed camera. It has offices in Beverly, Mass., and Scottsdale, Ariz.

A representative of the company could not be reached for comment Friday. The contract will last three years, with the option for two one-year extensions.

GATSO claims to have created the first red-light camera in 1966 and calls itself "the world's largest photo enforcement vendor," with 45,000 cameras in 60 countries.

GATSO USA, launched in 2007, was among five companies vying for the contract. Two others were the largest in the American market: American Traffic Solutions and Redflex Traffic Systems. American Traffic Solutions supplies camera equipment to New York City and holds contracts in Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Nassau County. Redflex has the contract in Rochester.

Despite GATSO's far smaller U.S. market share, Cox said the city was convinced that it is committed to making streets safer — demonstrated in part, he said, by GATSO's refusal to provide the city projections of fine revenue.

"It was really about getting it right," Cox said of why it took city officials nearly three months to vet the proposals. "We just felt that whatever needed to be done to keep public safety on the forefront that they would do it." He also cited the company's experience and "record of responsiveness."

Bypassing the two larger companies sidestepped two potentially thorny public relations problems. Redflex is trying to repair its reputation after a bribery scandal cost it Chicago's contract, while ATS lobbied state lawmakers to authorize Albany's program and supplied the $2 million revenue estimate that Sheehan included in this year's budget.

With the year half gone by the time the cameras are expected to go live, it's not clear whether the city will still be able to hit that mark. Doing so would require roughly six $50 tickets per day, per camera — assuming all of the fines get paid.

GATSO's price was not the cheapest. Illinois-based RedSpeed USA offered the city leases at $3,339 per month and also guaranteed "cost neutrality," while Orlando-based Sensys America offered $3,900.

In choosing a monthly lease, the city opted not to finance the cameras by paying the vendors a share of each fine, a system that the Federal Highway Administration, AAA and others have urged municipalities to avoid due to the perception that the companies have a profit motive to boost violation rates.

But Jonathan Capra, a member of the group No Albany Red-Light Cameras, said the city's lease arrangement still appears to incentivize GATSO to ensure enough tickets are issued to meet the monthly rent payments.

"I want to see the promises that the focus on safety be kept," Capra said. "Revenue should not be factor. And most of all, I want to assure that now and later this third-party interest is not going to be having a stake in our municipal business."

Cox said the city expects a two-month ramp-up period that will include ample public education. Once the system is live, drivers will be given a 10-day warning period before the city starts mailing out actual violations, he said.

Every intersection with a camera will also have a yellow light that lasts four seconds, Cox said. That's one second longer than the federal guideline for a 30 mph road.

A police officer will review every violation before the citation is mailed. Officers will be instructed to use discretion and not to approve citations for behavior -— such as a safe rolling turn on red — that they would not ticket in person, Cox said.

But Cox said motorists who turn right on red where it is explicitly forbidden will be cited when the cameras catch them.

The police department will disclose data about the effectiveness of the system "at least quarterly," Cox said.

GATSO's cameras could also be used to snare speeders, but it would be illegal for the city to do so without additional authorization from the state Legislature.

The citations are non-moving violations issued to a vehicle's registered owner. Violators will be sent still images and also video of their cars running the light and can contest citations with the city Parking Violations Bureau.

"If we end up with zero people running red lights, then we'll end up with zero right-angle crashes," Cox said, using the industry term for broadside collisions. "And that's the end we're looking for."

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU