Montgomery County outlines plan to restore, modernize automated traffic cameras

Montgomery County officials told a joint Transportation & Environment and Public Safety committee on Dec. 8 that the county has rebuilt its automated traffic-enforcement system after pausing operations this summer amid an OIG review and system issues. Assistant Chief Dave McBain of the Montgomery County Police Department said the department "made the hard decision, to go dark" in July to ensure the program operates at an acceptable level before issuing citations.

The county is replacing older vans and fixed poles with new Vitronic trailer systems and updated fixed-pole cameras, officials said. Chris Depri, the county's director of automated traffic, described local assembly and a shift to trailers that can remain on site longer and fixed units that lower for maintenance: "Vitronic is the original equipment manufacturer ... They are actually putting the cameras in," he said, noting the vendor provides back-end software and a real-time dashboard the county plans to use for transparency.

Staff emphasized the program will continue to place cameras based on crash and speed-study data rather than political pressure. Assistant Chief McBain said site selection is data-driven and that, while the system was offline, officers continued to staff school arrival and dismissal times. Depri described an operational threshold used to flag candidate locations: a baseline that roughly 85% of vehicles at a location are traveling 12 miles per hour over the limit, with engineers also factoring in schools, sight lines and other environmental constraints. "We look at the data," McBain said; "we're not just indiscriminately throwing them out in the county."

Officials stressed the difference between replacing the existing fleet and expanding the county's coverage. County staff said the initial procurement focuses on restoring the fleet and replacing about 51 fixed systems (mostly in school zones), then deploying cameras to secondary and corridor locations once regulations, signage and any required local authorizations are complete. Staff noted that publication and signage requirements in state law must be satisfied before violations can be issued at a new location.

Council members asked about types of enforcement under consideration beyond speed and red-light cameras. Staff listed bus-passing enforcement (county school buses generate roughly 50,000 recorded violations annually), stop-sign enforcement being considered in nearby municipalities, distracted-driving cameras and pilot noise-monitoring units. Officials cautioned that some technologies raise legal or privacy issues; Depri said the county has required vendors to degrade images to prevent facial recognition where necessary.

On timing, staff said the county has studied hundreds of candidate locations across a high-incident network and can move quickly once the enabling local regulations and required signage are in place. Council members asked to receive follow-up data after the new graduated-fines schedule has been in effect for several months; one member requested a return briefing in July to review six months of new-program data.

The county's presentation emphasized transparency, data-driven site selection and a staggered approach that prioritizes rebuilding the existing enforcement capability before broader expansion. The committee did not take formal votes on the procurement or authorizing regulations during the session; staff said they will bring required local enabling legislation and regulatory packages to the council in the new year.