Lights, camera, citation? Red light camera flashes don’t mean you’ll get a ticket

A feeling of angst, all too familiar, after the bright flash of red light camera captures you driving through an intersection, unable to recall whether or not you may have going past the speed limit.

Thirty-two of the cameras are strategically placed at busy intersections across El Paso, prone to crashes, El Paso police tell ABC-7.

“We evaluate the number off of collisions, the number of violators,” said Darrel Petry, a spokesman with the El Paso Police Department. “Once the decision is made then cameras are installed.”

The City of El Paso contracted with a company called Redflex for five years in April 2017 to maintain them.

If you’re caught on camera, citations will set you back around $75, Petry said, $25 extra if you pay late.

“Forty-thousand citations issued in 2016,” Petry said. Down to 36,000 in 2017.

If a photo radar flashes you, don’t agonize over an impending ticket in your mailbox.

“Anytime that happens it’s merely the system booting up ready to take the image,” Petry said. “There’s a couple of different sensors that work on the red light camera: One of those is radar, and one of those the ground sensor”

Law enforcement officials told ABC-7 the cameras also allow them to devot more time to other, more pressing, crimes.