Paradise Valley continues photo enforcement activity

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. (KSAZ) - Photo enforcement has been a hot button topic in Arizona for years, but the future of the technology is in doubt after a recent opinion has been issued by the Arizona Attorney General. One of the bigger users of the technology Paradise Valley, says they are not backing down yet.

Since the Attorney General's opinion came down last week, cities have been scrambling to decide if they can legally continue issuing photo radar tickets through third parties. The town of Paradise Valley has been vocal about its decision to keep its cameras and begin processing citations within the police department.

"I drive everyday through PV so I'm kind of used to it, and I think everybody kind of slows down cause we know the cameras are there," said Ryan Taylor.

"They're a little bit ridiculous because people just learn to drive within it anyways," said David Fatica.

Despite local critics, the Town of Paradise Valley is adamant about keeping its photo radar cameras. On March 16th, Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote that it's illegal for third-parties to administer photo radar to issue citations. Since then, Paradise Valley has ended its relationship with RedFlex and will now handle citations internally.

"All the fixed intersections we own the equipment, and we're maintaining all the data in-house, and we will process citations in-house with the police department," said Lt. Michael Cole.

Paradise Valley Police Lieutenant Cole says the town has already removed RedFlex mobile photo radar vans and will strategize how best to take over duties previously administered by the third party.

"Our instructions to red flex was any citations that had not been processed up until March 16th when we removed them from the process, not to issue those citations. So we shouldn't be getting any future citations from the third party vendor," said Cole.

Cole says that keeping the town cameras will not only conform to the Attorney General's opinion, but also keep drivers safe.

"The last thing we want to do is have accidents occur due to speeding and red light running because we decided to turn the cameras off," said Cole.

The City of Phoenix did not respond to requests for comments about how they are responding to the AG's opinion. Scottsdale Police say the cameras are still active, but the city is not issuing citations at the moment until they evaluate the opinion.