Redmond staff brief council on proposed five-year photo‑radar contract, cite safety goals and near‑neutral finances

Redmond staff presented a proposed five‑year contract with a private vendor to install photo‑radar and red‑light cameras across the city and asked council for direction to bring the contract back for formal approval.

The chief of police described the program as a behavioral tool: "the whole goal of this is... change driver behavior and improve traffic safety," and said staff intend a phased rollout. Phase 1 would place devices on city‑managed roadways — a red‑light camera at Northwest 6 and Northwest Maple, a fixed speed camera by Northwest 10th Street near Tomacau Elementary, and one portable unit to move among data‑driven hot spots. Phase 2 would target ODOT‑managed corridors such as Highway 97 and will require separate ODOT authorization and additional lead time.

Staff and city finance staff presented the vendor's operational and revenue model and a staff spot‑check of that data. Finance described a simple funnel used for budgeting: of 100 photo‑captured incidents, roughly 68 would become citations and about 51 would be paid; "about 30% of the revenues are coming to the…