Calvert County moved closer to getting its first speed camera Thursday night when the Chesapeake Beach Town Council voted 6-0-1 to empower Bruce Wahl to negotiate an agreement with OptoTraffic for placement of a camera on Bayside Road (Route 261) at Beach Elementary School.
Mickey Shepherd, account manager for the Lanham, Md., firm appeared at the council session to answer questions that had beenn raised at the previous meeting by Councilman Robert Carpenter. Shepherd said the speed is determined by twin lasers which are extremely accurate. In addition, the technology can measure a vehicle’s speed along either direction on the road.
OptoTraffic has installations in Prince George’s County, “and we expect to be in four other municipalities and counties by the end of this month.” He continued, “We are the only Maryland-based speed camera company, and we do everything in-state.”
According to Shepherd, “There is no cost to the community. We handle the entire process, except that the actual citations must be approved by a sworn law enforcement officer. What photo enforcement does is free up police officers for real police work.”
Statistics show that speed camera result in reduced speeds on roads where they are in operation, Shepherd stated. “Once people know the cameras are there, the citations drop off dramatically.”
He added, “No one has ever shown us a citation that shows the system doesn’t work. The state allows a one percent error rate; ours is much lower than that.”
Chesapeake Beach passed enabling legislation for a speed camera in February, under authority granted statewide by the legislature in 2009 allowing cameras in school zones. The town solicited bids and received two, OptoTraffic’s being the lower.
“I know the people of Chesapeake Beach are very concerned about speed around the scho
