SF getting new red-light cameras, but it’s been a stop-and-go process

A camera (green box) at Fifth and Mission streets has been deactivated before new ones arrive. A camera (green box) at Fifth and Mission streets has been deactivated before new ones arrive. Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close SF getting new red-light cameras, but it’s been a stop-and-go process 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

If you ran a red light at one of San Francisco’s 20 camera-monitored intersections in the past four months, you got a pass. That’s because the aging traffic cameras were turned off while a new system was waiting to be installed.

The new system, which is to be installed starting this month, won’t be completely up and running until the summer.

And that has safety advocates seeing red.

“During a time when San Francisco is experiencing a troubling uptick in fatal collisions involving people walking and biking, these cameras cannot be replaced soon enough,” said San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Brian Wiedenmeier.

But nothing comes easy in San Francisco, even replacing aging camera cops.

Here’s the story.

First installed during a pilot program in 1996, red-light cameras take automatic snapshots of both the front license plate and the driver’s face when a vehicle enters an intersection after the light has changed.

The photos are used as evidence to issue $489 state moving violation tickets for running the light.

By 2013 the program grew to 47 cameras at 26 intersections, then later was cut back to 20 after the city reviewed the collision rates at the intersections and determined fewer cameras were needed.

The cameras proved to be a valuable tool in reducing red-light-related collisions by up to 40 percent in the intersections, said Municipal Transportation Agency spokesman Paul Rose.

But then the cameras started falling apart, and so did the ticket numbers.

In 2012, the city issued 19,122 red-light tickets. By 2016 the number of tickets issued in the intersections with cameras dropped to 7,663 — less than half of the 2012 number.

“Camera breakdowns were becoming too frequent, especially in wet weather,” Rose said. “Repairs could take weeks or months, depending on the repair subcontractor’s availability, the time needed to order parts — such as poles — or waiting until a construction project was completed.”

Not only were the cameras becoming obsolete, so were replacement parts.

“And Kodak would soon stop making the film used in the cameras,” Rose said.

By 2014 Muni had decided it was time to begin looking for a more modern digital camera system.

Getting the new deal together, however, took four years and included a study to see which intersections should get the new cameras, coming up with a design, sending out bid requests for the work, and finally getting a green light for the project in November 2018.

Meanwhile, the old cameras continued to break down at an increasing rate.

And that meant that last year the number of red-light tickets plummeted to 1,400 — about four tickets a day — citywide.

So in January, Muni just shut down the whole system until the new cameras were installed.

The first new digital camera at Fourth and Harrison streets goes into operation this month, with the others to follow this summer.

But even with the new cameras, the chances of getting a ticket will be less than before.

“We are only installing cameras at intersections with the highest collision rates and where other safety upgrades have failed to improve collision totals,” Rose said.

So there will be seven fewer intersections covered — that’s fewer cameras at a time when safety advocates say the city needs more.

“San Francisco needs to be doing everything in its power to make our streets safer, especially given the number of traffic deaths already this year. It’s hard to believe we need less red-light cameras,” said SF Walk Executive Director Jodie Medeiros.

But at least the new ones will work.

We hope.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2010 Park visitors review the admission fees on a new ticket booth at...

Break-in news: On a recent walk to the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park, Laurie Cohen came across members of an Alabama family standing on the sidewalk surrounded by their luggage.

Their rental car had been broken into.

The garden’s north gate ticket taker told Cohen that car break-ins are an everyday occurrence in the park.

San Francisco police reported 168 thefts this year from vehicles in Golden Gate Park as of the end of March — that’s 56 a month.

“Since these break-ins in the park are an everyday occurrence, do the city and park police patrol the area?” Cohen asked.

Golden Gate Park, which has 15 miles of roadway and covers 1,017 acres, has only one park ranger on patrol at any time, day or night.

The San Francisco Police Department’s Richmond Station has taken steps to reduce car break-ins, including having mounted and motorcycle officers patrol in and around the park. And a plainclothes unit dedicated to auto burglaries arrested three auto burglary suspects this month.

Nonetheless, while citywide car burglaries were down 21 percent through February, break-ins rose 4 percent in the Richmond District.

It’s all part of a trend that helped land San Francisco the dubious honor of having the highest per-capita property theft crime rate of the 20 most populous U.S. cities in 2017, the last year that FBI statistics are available.

So, we still know how to do something — too bad it’s car break-ins.

Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle BART Chief of Police Carlos Rojas during a news conference at BART...

Goal: Believe it or not, BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas’ abrupt exit was prompted in large part by his desire to attend his son’s soccer games.

Rojas, who has been commuting the past two years between the Bay Area and his family home in Orange County, was just shy of the 30-year mark as a police officer, so taking retirement was not all that unexpected.

“I could have gone for 30, but it’s my son’s senior year at West Point and I just wanted to spend as much time with him as I can,” Rojas said.

So Rojas plans to make as many of the games as possible.

Because unlike a lot of new college grads, “He won’t be coming home. He’ll be serving as a first lieutenant in the Army,” Rojas said.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phillip Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier