Speed and Red-light Cameras Have Widespread Support Among Arizona Voters

Summary of Poll Results

Power Point presentation highlighting some of the more interesting finings

American Traffic Solutions (ATS) is the company that first introduced photo traffic enforcement not only to Arizona (Paradise Valley 1987) but to the United States.  As such, we have been monitoring public sentiment on speed and red-light cameras for 20+ years.

The deployment of speed cameras by the Department of Public Safety throughout Arizona has ratcheted up the debate about photo enforcement.  A bill is being debated in the Arizona Legislature to shut down the state’s speed camera program.  The outcome of that program does not directly impact ATS, as we were not the successful bidder for that contract. 

It has been our experience in the past that when the volume is increased in any debate about photo enforcement, public policy leaders conclude that the loudest voices reflect the majority opinion of voters.  This is not always the case.

ATS commissioned Public Opinion Strategies (POS), a nationally-recognized polling company (these are the same folks who handled polling duties for Sen. John McCain during his recent bid for president), to solicit Arizona voters’ views toward photo enforcement.  We deliberately asked them to query voters about this issue at the very time that anti-photo enforcement bills were being introduced, press conferences were held by opponents and various initiative alternatives outlawing photo enforcement were under discussion.  In other words, the poll conducted on Jan. 13-14, 2009, was done during a very negative media cycle for photo enforcement.

Among our findings:  63% of Arizona voters think the Department of Public Safety should continue its statewide photo speed enforcement program.  69% of these same voters want the cities and counties using speed cameras to continue their programs.  And a whopping 84% of voters believe city police departments should continue using red-light cameras.

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