Frequently Asked Questions

1) What other strategies are currently used to promote safe driving in Lake Forest Park?

The City of Lake Forest Park actively collaborates with the King County Target Zero and the King County Traffic Safety Coalition in Washington. We regularly participate in both local and regional emphasis patrols. Our traffic unit, including an officer and sergeant, is dedicated to addressing high-collision areas and responding to citizen service requests. Additionally, we strategically deploy a radar trailer at various locations throughout the city to monitor traffic speeds and target specific concerns.

We encourage residents to report speeding and other traffic-related issues to the police department. We appreciate it when drivers adhere to speed limits, especially considering the many blind corners in our community, the absence of sidewalks, and our goal to foster a family, pet, and kid-friendly environment. Promoting a strong sense of community is important to us, and this can be challenging when our roads are treated as high-speed thoroughfares.

2) Why are traffic safety photo enforcement cameras used in Lake Forest Park?

Traffic safety camera systems are a safety measure designed to reduce and prevent speeding and collisions. The goal of our program, since the beginning in 2009, has been pedestrian safety in our school zones, and collision reduction on SR 522 (Bothell Way). The program is used as a force-multiplier, adding to the enforcement capacity of the department. The cameras enable police department staff, which are typically running at minimum levels, to perform other functions that address a wide range of public safety tasks.

This system also enables unbiased technologies for promoting safe driving that lets residents and commuters through our community know we take safe driving seriously. Related directly to the police department’s goals, we want to promote the most pedestrian friendly community we can, given our location and topography, and appropriately manage the extensive increase in traffic volume on Bothell Way.

3) How do the traffic safety photo enforcement cameras work?

The School Zone Cameras are linked to the hours of operation for the School District and operate on the days of the week school is in session. The camera captures vehicles traveling at 26 miles per hour, which provides a six mile per hour variance. A signal will flash as a vehicle travels through the area, at a time when the school zone is active. 

The School Walk Zone Cameras operate 24 hours a day, for speeds greater than 25pmh.  The cameras capture vehicles traveling at 31 miles per hour, which provides a six mile per hour variance.

The Red-Light Cameras are operational 24 hours a day. The camera captures violators that cross the solid white line after the light has turned red, it does not capture a vehicle if it is in the intersection when the light turns. Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) regulates the amber cycle time; the city has no access to the intersection controls. The cycle time is within national standards.

The City of Lake Forest Park currently uses the AutoPatrol™ 3D radar fixed speed safety camera system, an electronic speed measuring device provided through a contract with American Traffic Solutions, Inc. (“ATS”). ATS contracted with the City of Lake Forest Park to provide an Automated Speed Enforcement (“ASE”) system designed to record the speed of a vehicle and obtain photographs or other recorded images of the vehicle and the vehicle’s registration plate while the vehicle is traveling in excess of speed limits.

The AutoPatrol 3D radar fixed speed safety camera system operates by measuring vehicle speed, as well as position relative to the radar to calculate and differentiate multiple vehicles in the radar beam. The speed of a moving vehicle is measured by Doppler radar. Doppler radar is technology used for measuring speed. The tracking radar can simultaneously detect multiple vehicles and measure their speed, distance, angle, and movement within the radar beam. The radar tracks multiple vehicles by reconstructing vehicle movement from the measured object speed, angle, and distance values. If a vehicle passes a defined trigger line, the radar outputs the vehicle’s speed and lane information. The camera connected to the tracking radar uses this information to determine if there is a speed violation and to capture photographs showing the measured speed and lane on the databar of the captured images.

Prior to operation each day, the system performs a system self-test. This self-test performs an electronic tuning fork test to produce a specific frequency and returns an associated speed value. Only if the return value meets the acceptance criteria to show that the system is operating correctly will the system enter measure mode. Unless a self-test is successful, the system will not enter measure mode, and no violations will be captured. Each day the computer which controls the fixed speed safety camera system is rebooted. The reboot is initiated each day and each time the computer is rebooted an internal check is performed on all operations of each fixed speed safety camera system, including the clocks, sensors, camera, and speed calculating hardware and software, to verify that all operations are functioning correctly. When the internal check detects a problem with one of the operations on a given fixed speed safety camera system, then that fixed speed safety camera system is inactivated and a request for service is relayed to ATS support personnel. This means that violations cannot be issued until any internal problem is fixed.

Speed validation tests are regularly performed on each installed and operable AutoPatrol™ 3D radar fixed speed safety camera system. The test is conducted by having a LIDAR Operator obtain true measurements of up to five vehicles per lane in the ascending and/or descending direction. Preventative maintenance, including visual inspections, is regularly performed on the AutoPatrol™ 3D radar fixed speed safety camera systems.

Prior to a citation being mailed to a violator, the system administrator (Verra Mobility), is required to verify a strict set of business rules that have been set up to ensure the violation has occurred. Once that has been accomplished, they will send the incident electronically to the police department for review. Each incident is then reviewed and verified by a Lake Forest Park Police Officer. We are required to certify a violation that has occurred before it is mailed to the driver.

4) Do the traffic safety photo enforcement cameras work? 

Yes. There has been a decrease in collisions at the intersection of Bothell Way and NE 165th of more than 39% since installing the camera system. Nearly 80% of the drivers cited for a photo enforcement ticket live outside of the City of Lake Forest Park. And 91% of all violators who receive a ticket and pay it do not get another violation. This low rate of repeated behavior, tracked from program inception through April 2014, indicates a change in driver behavior.

5) What aren’t the traffic safety photo enforcement cameras used for? 

Traffic safety cameras are only triggered when a law is broken, and they do not operate as a surveillance tool. Officials are unable to access data captured by the camera system without a specific warrant obtained through the court for legal purposes. The City of Lake Forest Park values the privacy and rights of our citizens. RCW 46.63.220 regulates how the systems must operate, and the city is complying.

6) Is the traffic safety photo enforcement camera system used to generate revenue? 

Yes, the camera system does generate revenue for the city. The system has been set up to be at a minimum cost neutral for the city. The city does pay Verra Mobility a flat rate per site that totals $822,000 per year.

The Police Department has no role in the collection of fines or the distribution of funds. The Municipal Court handles all tickets and revenue, and the City Council in cooperation with the mayor’s office sets direction for spending of the money received. Currently, the revenue is deposited into the City’s General Fund, which assists each department providing a wide variety of services. The new 24/7 school walk zone cameras revenue goes to the traffic action fund (known as fund "002") and is used for traffic calming and related traffic safety programs. These funds assist with staffing of the camera program overhead and traffic improvements within the city.  

We are sharing the revenue so the community is aware of the financial reality of this mitigation strategy but that, again, the Police Department’s sole purpose in employing this strategy in several locations in our city is purely based on positive gains in safety regardless of how small those margins may seem to some.

7) Who provides the traffic safety photo enforcement camera system technology? 

Verra Mobility https://www.verramobility.com/. The technology developed and provided by Verra Mobility is the best in the industry. Verra Mobility develops, delivers and operates next-generation road safety products and services that reduce the number and severity of preventable crashes by increasing compliance with traffic laws addressing red-lights, school zones, speed limits and school bus safety.

Click here for: Speed Measuring Device Certifications