MILTON, Fla. — The Milton Police Department plans to ramp up traffic enforcement in August.
Chief Jennifer Frank says running red lights is the leading cause of car crashes in city limits.
Some of the problem intersections were monitored by red light cameras in the past. But they were removed about five years ago.
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Now, police officers will monitor those lights themselves. Chief Frank says her department has received numerous complaints of people running red lights.
“Red light violations are one of those leading causes of motor vehicle crashes,” Frank said. “And because of that, we are trying to get proactively ahead of that to prevent those crashes from occurring.”
Milton Police is responding to an increase of car crashes because of folks running red lights.
“[We’re] merging the lived data that our officers have seen,” Frank said. “Our crash data and then the concerns from citizens together have helped us to try to map out the area that we’re going to put some extra increased traffic enforcement during the month of August.”
One of the problem intersections was previously monitored by two red light cameras.
“The Glover intersection with U.S. 90 is an area in particular that we’ve received several complaints,” said Frank. “As a result of that, we are going to include increased traffic enforcement there, but not just that location. We’ve received other locations from citizens.”
There were five red light cameras in Milton, two at Glover and U.S. 90, two at Parkmore Place and U.S. 90, and one at Dogwood Drive and Hamilton.
In 2021, Milton City Council voted to get rid of them, even though then-Chief Tony Tindell supported the cameras.
“It doesn’t matter what the police chief thinks, it doesn’t matter what we think,” councilmember Shannon Rice said. “If the citizens don’t like them, let’s take them down.”
Tindell said from 2011 to 2021, 92% of drivers who ran the lights and got a ticket, didn’t run a red light again.
That data didn’t matter to councilmembers at the time. They were more concerned that most of the money from tickets, went to the state.
“What I hear again and again is from the citizens, that they don’t like them,” said Rice. “And that’s all it takes for me. If it’s the citizens’ city, and if they don’t like them, then we need to remove them.”
Now, Milton Police will monitor certain red lights themselves.
“It’s not any additional technology,” Frank said. “It’s not the red light cameras of before. It’s the boots on the ground response to try and address that.”
The increase in enforcement will take away from the department’s other responsibilities.
“For every hour we’re doing traffic enforcement, we may not be at a meeting,” said Frank. “For every meeting that we’re at, we may not be able to have an additional officer backing up on a call for service. The multifactored element of being a police officer is so significant and the demands on law enforcement have just increased over time.”
Frank says it’s too early to consider bringing back the red light cameras.
“If in the end of the day, the data reveals that we need additional help beyond the manpower available, then we’re going to look at every opportunity available,” said Frank. “Whether that would be red light cameras or not, I can’t say. We’re going to start right now though by gathering that data and trying to make some proactive efforts to change behavior early on.”
The Milton Police Department is made up of 21 officers.
Chief Frank says sometime after August, the department will reassess whether using officers for traffic enforcement is the best use of resources.
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