Public Works staff on Oct. 22 briefed the Infrastructure Planning and Sustainability Committee on a proposed expansion of Tacoma's automated enforcement program, outlining a data-driven method for identifying new speed-camera locations, financial rules under state law and planned equity analyses.

Carrie Wilhelm, a Public Works lead on the effort, said the focus of the first phase will be speed cameras because they offer the greatest safety impact and align with crash data. The staff methodology uses Washington State Department of Transportation crash records from 2020'25, assigns higher weights to fatal and serious-injury crashes, and analyzes concentrations along corridors by dividing them into one-tenth-mile segments to pinpoint where cameras are likely to be most effective.

"On average 88 percent of drivers who receive a citation do not reoffend," Wilhelm said, citing peer-city findings and local program results as evidence that automated enforcement changes behavior. Staff noted an initial evaluation of the Bay Street speed camera showed a sharp reduction in vehicles traveling 10 mph or more over the limit after installation.

The expansion follows House Bill 2384 (2024), which broadened local authority to use automated enforcement beyond school zones and red-light intersections; state law also established transparency and equity requirements and financial rules (RCW 46.63.220) that require operators to cover program operating and administration costs first, then invest net revenues in traffic-safety improvements.

Staff gave a financial overview: the city's traffic engineering/education/enforcement fund brought in about $2.9 million in 2024 (a mix of sources including automated enforcement), and staff estimated a single heavily used corridor could generate gross revenue in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually before vendor and administrative costs. Eric Huseby, who presented parts of the financial modeling, said the new RCW requires program expenses to be directly related to automated enforcement before net revenue is available for safety investments.

Privacy protections: staff emphasized statutory limits. Cameras record license plates and not people; data are restricted to program purposes, have retention limits and cannot be re-purposed for unrelated criminal cases.

Program process and equity: staff described an automated-enforcement task force formed earlier in 2025 that included representatives from disability and neighborhood groups, the communities police advisory committee, the transportation commission and public-health partners. As required by state law, staff will conduct a pre-installation equity analysis for each proposed site considering livability, accessibility, economics, education and environmental health, and staff said they are consulting outside practitioners to align the analysis with the city's equity index.

Operational details and timeline: staff identified the 15 streets with the most fatal and serious-injury crashes and will collect speed data at potential segments to confirm whether speed is a contributing factor. Data-collection tubes were scheduled to be placed in the field the week following the briefing; staff said they are targeting late Q1 2026 for initial camera activations and emphasized a public education phase (signs posted 30 days prior and a 30-day warning period after activation).

Council members raised questions about ownership of vendor systems, data location and proportionality of spending. Staff said the contracted vendor is a national firm (headquartered in Florida for the current contract), that the vendor does not interconnect camera systems and that privacy rules restrict data uses. Staff also said state law includes a proportionality requirement that triggers additional investment into lower-income areas if those areas overlap with high-crash locations, but otherwise there is not a requirement that revenue generated in one corridor be spent only in that corridor.

Next steps: staff will continue collecting speed data, complete pre-installation equity analyses, carry out outreach and return to council with additional specifics and recommended locations. The committee did not take action; staff expect to brief the full council in early 2026 before activations.