As part of its plan to set up red-light cameras at intersections, Suffolk County also will install dummy cameras to fool drivers into believing they are being monitored, Public Works Commissioner Gilbert Anderson said Tuesday.
Anderson spoke after a meeting of the Legislature's Public Works and Transportation Committee in which he tried to ease legislators' concerns about Nassau drivers who have been fined for making right turns on red lights at camera-equipped intersections.
Suffolk's request for proposals for a red-light camera operating system is not due back until Oct. 9, said Anderson and Bill Hillman, the county's chief engineer. But the county plans to direct the vendor to make its devices tell the difference between a vehicle driving straight through a red light and one making a legal right turn.
"Many of the snafus that Nassau has encountered, we've already considered in the RFP process," Hillman said.
The county has been authorized by state lawmakers to install 50 red-light cameras. Anderson told legislators he expects the initial set to sit at intersections within the Suffolk police district, which encompasses the county's five western towns, excluding villages with their own police department.
Anderson said the county is still deciding which intersections will get cameras and whether the county would note them with signs. He said he did not know how many dummy cameras the county would install.
Anderson and Hillman appeared after Legis. Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) questioned whether Suffolk's system would have similar issues as Nassau's. "I want to raise the issue now so it's addressed early in the process," he said.
Anderson said a Suffolk police officer would review each ticket that red-light cameras issue before mailing it to the vehicle's owner. How such a review would take place - by video or a series of photographs, for example - will be determined in the contract vetting process, he said.
