An act to amend Section 21455.5 of the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.
Section 21455.5 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
21455.5.
(a) Except or provided in subdivision (k), the limit line, the intersection, or a place designated in Section 21455, where a driver is required to stop, may be equipped with an automated traffic enforcement system if the governmental agency using the system meets all of the following requirements:
(1) Identifies the system by signs posted within 200 feet of an intersection where a system is operating that clearly indicate the system’s presence and are visible to traffic approaching from all directions in which the automated traffic enforcement system is being used to issue citations. A governmental agency using a system does not need to post signs visible to traffic approaching the intersection from directions not subject to the automated traffic enforcement system. Automated traffic enforcement systems installed as of January 1, 2013, shall be identified no later than January 1, 2014.
(2) Locates the system at an intersection and ensures that the system meets the criteria specified in Section 21455.7.
(b) Prior to issuing citations under this section, a local jurisdiction using an automated traffic enforcement system shall commence a program to issue only warning notices for 30 days. The local jurisdiction shall also make a public announcement of the automated traffic enforcement system at least 30 days prior to the commencement of the enforcement program.
(c) Only a governmental agency, in cooperation with a law enforcement agency, may operate an automated traffic enforcement system. A governmental agency that operates an automated traffic enforcement system shall do all of the following:
(1) Develop uniform guidelines for screening and issuing violations and for the processing and storage of confidential information. Establish procedures to ensure compliance with those guidelines. A governmental agency that operates an automated traffic enforcement system installed on or before January 1, 2013 shall establish those guidelines by January 1, 2014.
(2) Perform administrative functions and day-to-day functions, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Establishing guidelines for the selection of a location. Commencing January 1, 2013, before installing an automated traffic enforcement system the governmental agency shall make and adopt a finding of fact establishing that the system is needed at a specific location for reasons related to safety.
(B) Ensuring that the equipment is regularly inspected.
(C) Certifying that the equipment is properly installed and calibrated, and is operating properly.
(D) Regularly inspecting and maintaining warning signs placed pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a).
(E) Overseeing the establishment, change, and timing of signal phases.
(F) Maintaining controls necessary to ensure that only those citations that have been reviewed and approved by law enforcement are delivered to violators.
(d) The activities listed in subdivision (c) that relate to the operation of the system may be contracted out by the governmental agency, if it maintains overall control and supervision of the system. However, the activities listed in paragraph (1) of, and subparagraphs (A), (D), (E), and (F) of paragraph (2) of, subdivision (c) shall not be contracted out to the manufacturer or supplier of the automated traffic enforcement system.
(e) The printed representation of computer-generated information, video, or photographic images stored by an automated traffic enforcement system does not constitute an out-of-court hearsay statement by a declarant under Division 10 (commencing with Section 1200) of the Evidence Code.
(f) (1) Notwithstanding Section 6253 of the Government Code, or any other law, photographic records made by an automated traffic enforcement system shall be confidential, and shall be made available only to governmental agencies and law enforcement agencies and only for the purposes of this article.
(2) Confidential information obtained from the Department of Motor Vehicles for the administration or enforcement of this article shall be held confidential, and shall not be used for any other purpose.
(3) Except for court records described in Section 68152 of the Government Code, the confidential records and information described in paragraphs (1) and (2) may be retained for up to six months from the date the information was first obtained, or until final disposition of the citation, whichever date is later, after which time the information shall be destroyed in a manner that will preserve the confidentiality of any person included in the record or information.
(g) Notwithstanding subdivision (f), the registered owner or any individual identified by the registered owner as the driver of the vehicle at the time of the alleged violation shall be permitted to review the photographic evidence of the alleged violation.
(h) (1) A contract between a governmental agency and a manufacturer or supplier of automated traffic enforcement equipment shall not include a provision for the payment or compensation to the manufacturer or supplier based on the number of citations generated, or as a percentage of the revenue generated, as a result of the use of the equipment authorized under this section.
(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to a contract that was entered into by a governmental agency and a manufacturer or supplier of automated traffic enforcement equipment before January 1, 2004, unless that contract is renewed, extended, or amended on or after January 1, 2004.
(3) A governmental agency that proposes to install or operate an automated traffic enforcement system shall not consider revenue generation, beyond recovering its actual costs of operating the system, as a factor when considering whether or not to install or operate a system within its local jurisdiction.
(i) A manufacturer or supplier that operates an automated traffic enforcement system pursuant to this section shall, in cooperation with the governmental agency, submit an annual report to the Judicial Council that includes, but is not limited to, all of the following information if this information is in the possession of, or readily available to, the manufacturer or supplier:
(1) The number of alleged violations captured by the systems they operate.
(2) The number of citations issued by a law enforcement agency based on information collected from the automated traffic enforcement system.
(3) For citations identified in paragraph (2), the number of violations that involved traveling straight through the intersection, turning right, and turning left.
(4) The number and percentage of citations that are dismissed by the court.
(5) The number of traffic collisions at each intersection that occurred prior to, and after the installation of, the automated traffic enforcement system.
(j)  If a governmental agency using an automated traffic enforcement system has posted signs on or before January 1, 2013, that met the requirements of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of this section as it read on January 1, 2012, the governmental agency shall not remove those signs until signs are posted that meet the requirements specified in this section, as it reads on January 1, 2013.
(k) (1) Commencing January 1, 2016, a governmental agency shall not install an automated traffic enforcement system.
(2) A governmental agency that is operating an automated traffic enforcement system on January 1, 2016, may continue to operate the automated traffic enforcement system after that date only if the agency begins conducting, on or before February 28, 2016, a traffic safety study at each intersection where an automated traffic enforcement system is in use to determine whether the use of the system resulted in a
statistically significant
reduction in the number of traffic accidents
when the primary collision factor was a violation of subdivision (a) or (c) of Section 21453
at that intersection.
The traffic study shall also determine whether rear-end collisions occurring within 100 feet of the intersection have increased. The methodology of the traffic safety study shall account for factors other than the automated traffic enforcement system that could have caused any reduction in red-light running, including, but not limited to, engineering countermeasures employed at the intersection, changes in traffic volume, effects of weather, collisions caused by impairment, statistical regression to the mean, and overall trends in red-light running collision rates. The study shall use, at a minimum, three years of data collected before the installation of the automated traffic enforcement system, and the entire period after installation, up to the date the study commences, if that data is available, and shall adjust for any differences between the two periods.
The traffic safety study shall be conducted according to standards consistent with the analysis of data approved by the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for automated traffic enforcement systems.
All raw data used for, and referenced in, the study shall be clearly listed within the study to allow peer review. The study shall be completed on or before January 1, 2017.
(3) If the traffic safety study
shows
does not definitively show
that the use of an automated traffic enforcement system
did not reduce
reduced
the number of traffic accidents
caused by red-light running
that occurred at an intersection
equipped with an automated traffic enforcement system by a statistically significant number, or the study shows that there was an increase in rear-end collisions
, the governmental agency shall terminate the use of the system at that intersection no later than January 1,
2018.
2018, and no violation captured by the system after that date shall be used for prosecution.
(4) If the governmental agency uses an automated traffic enforcement system to cite motorists for right-turn violations, the agency shall, using the same criteria listed in paragraph (2), include in the study, an analysis of collisions caused by motorists’ failure to stop before turning right on a red light in violation of subdivision (a) or (c) of Section 21453. If the traffic safety study does not definitively show that the use of the automated traffic enforcement system reduced the number of traffic accidents caused by motorists’ failure to stop before turning right on a red light in violation of subdivision (a) or (c) of Section 21453 at an intersection equipped with an automated traffic enforcement system by a statistically significant number, the governmental agency shall terminate the use of the system to cite motorists for right turn violations at that intersection on or before January 1, 2018, and no violation captured by the system after that date shall be used for prosecution.

Summary: Existing law authorizes the limit line, intersection, or other places where a driver is required to stop to be equipped with an automated traffic enforcement system, as defined, if the system meets certain requirements. Existing law authorizes a governmental agency to contract out the operation of the system under certain circumstances, except for specified activities, that include, among other things, establishing guidelines for selection of the location of the system.
This bill would, beginning January 1, 2016, prohibit a governmental agency from installing an automated traffic enforcement system. The bill would authorize a governmental agency that is operating an automatic traffic enforcement system on that date to continue to do so after that date only if the agency begins conducting a traffic safety study on or before February 28, 2016, at each intersection where a system is in use to determine whether the use of the system resulted in a reduction in the number of traffic accidents
involving failing to stop at a red light or failing to stop at a red light when making a right turn
at that intersection.
The bill would require the traffic safety study to be completed on or before January 1, 2017.
The bill would require the governmental agency to terminate the use of an automated traffic enforcement system at an intersection no later than January 1, 2018, if the traffic safety study shows that the use of the system did not reduce the number of traffic accidents that occurred at that intersection
by a statistically significant number
.