Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz says city may install red-light cameras to discourage speeding, reduce crashes

Officials say it's about changing behavior - not ticket revenue; our KTVZ.COM Poll asks your opinion

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bend city councilors have given Police Chief Mike Krantz the "green light" to continue developing an automated traffic enforcement system, including red-light and speed cameras that would bring warnings at first, but then tickets in the mail.

Bend could join other Oregon cities, like Tigard, which have red-light cameras at their most dangerous intersections.

"We want behavior change," Krantz told NewsChannel 21 Wednesday. "This is all about safety and behavior. It's not about creating funds for additional General Fund work."

Krantz pointed to federal data showing nearly 30% of all traffic deaths are due to speed-related crashes.

"Bend was one of the original listed in the (state) law that was allowed to use automated traffic enforcement," he said. "The city of Bend never went through with that program, though. And in 2020, there were changes around (laws governing) enforcement and red lights and speed on intersections, which then allowed the use of a traffic enforcement agent, instead of a police officer to swear to those citations."

Krantz is hopeful the community will support such enforcement: "This is really the idea, that we want our community to advocate for these systems -- we don't want to be the police department saying, 'This is what we need.'"

According to the city, the intersections with the highest number of crashes are Cooley Road and North Highway 97, SE Third Street and Reed Market Road, and Empire Avenue and Highway 20.

City Councilor Ariel Mendez said Wednesday "This is really about changing behavior -- this is not about making money. The goal is to have it up for a couple of years."

"The citations pay for the services," he said. "So a firm will come in, provide the cameras, provide a police officer with the ability to approve the citation. So the overall program doesn't cost us anything."

Krantz explained, "We would do a 30- or 60-day warning timeline and see if we can get behavior to change rapidly upfront, so people don't even get citations. They just get a warning like, 'Hey, your picture was captured running this red light. Here's what the consequences could be. And 60 days from now, we'll actually start enforcement in this area.'"

City councilors already have said they'll get input from the public before any final decision on adding the cameras. For now, Chief Krantz says he doesn't have a date when they might be installed.

There are several other cities in Oregon with the red-light cameras: Medford, Eugene, Beaverton, Portland, Albany and Oregon City.