Cedar Rapids, IA partners with GATSO USA for their Comprehensive Photo Enforcement Program

Beverly, MA — January 2010

The City of Cedar Rapids has a population of more than 120,000 people. With a primary interstate roadway going through the middle of the city and a growing population, the city felt there was a need for a more robust solution to traffic enforcement than through the sole use of uniformed police officers. The driving force behind this decision was the large numbers of crashes, deaths and injuries they were seeing.

The project started in July of 2009 when the City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa issued an RFP for the provision of a full-service, end-to-end photo enforcement program for their city. Gatso USA had been in discussions with the city for some months earlier, but it was the RFP that really set the project pace. The City concluded in August that Gatso USA was their chosen partner and the council agreed to award the contract to Gatso USA in October 2009 with a vote of 9-0 from the City Council.

Over the past many years, the number of red light intersection angle crashes was growing and so was the number of casualties resulting from this. There were too many crashes and too many injuries from drivers not stopping for a red light at an intersection. In addition, the City saw nine speed-related deaths in 2008 as a result of bad driving within the urban areas, of which seven deaths were caused by speeding on a raised section of Interstate I-380 which passed through the city. The raised section of Interstate was 2km long, was curved and quickly iced over in wintertime - causing an even greater hazard to passing traffic. Moreover, due to space constraints, the Police Department could not conduct speed enforcement through the use of patrol cars - and the driving public knew this - using the stretch of road as an opportunity to speed without impediment.

The City wanted to implement safer red light intersections by the use of red light cameras. They wanted to reduce the number of speed infractions seen throughout the city, both on the urban roads and through the red light intersections, and finally they wanted to slow the interstate traffic that was speeding into and out of Cedar Rapids during the rush-hour.

After investigation by Capt Steve O'Konek on the opportunities for automated enforcement, the council was presented with the concept of using automated photo-enforcement as a solution. The council voted 9-0 in favor of using photo-enforcement and asked Capt O'Konek to champion a selection process through RFP. The criteria set by the council and the police department were that the vendor chosen would be able to provide a solution for each of the necessary enforcement areas, whether it be fixed or mobile, speed or red light; that there should be no up-front costs to the city and that the company chosen should be able to provide a one-stop-shopping experience whereby a total solution is provided - design, construction, installation, implementation, program operation, citation issuance and fine collection. Additionally, during 2006 there had been an AMBER Alert within Cedar Rapids for an abducted young girl. The search ended when the body of the victim was found some miles from Cedar Rapids. As a result of this, Cedar Rapids was also very keen to have an ALPR component to their potential photo-enforcement project.

The GATSO USA solution answered The City's requirements - a full-service, end-to-end program of red light cameras (including speed on green capability), fixed speed cameras, mobile speed cameras and for the first time within the U.S., an interstate highway speed camera system. GATSO USA offers a turnkey system by delivering an installed, robust technical solution coupled with back-office violations processing capabilities and citation issuance system. Additionally, the system includes an integrated Amber Alert capability, providing The City with vehicle search capability through the integrated OCR system - which was requested.

Contact us for more information and to learn how Gatso USA can provide a tailor-made solution for your community. ussales@gatso.com, 978-922-7294 or visit us at Booth #208 at the AASHTO Annual Meeting, October 29th and 30th.

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