EDITORIAL:

When Huntington Beach City Council members initially directed their staff in September 2007 to look into installing cameras at some intersections to catch drivers who run red lights we put up a yield sign.

Our warnings bear repeating as the council has decided to move ahead with the installation of 20 red-light cameras at its most dangerous intersections.

First of all, we understand the urgency to increase safety at intersections like Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue. From Nov. 1, 2007 to Nov. 1, 2008, 553 of the 3,038 traffic collisions in the city were due to red-light runners. So certainly there’s a problem that needs addressing.

It also should go without saying that running a red light is foolish and selfish. Foolish because it won’t really save you much time, if any, because traffic systems are on a grid and the lights are timed. There’s a good chance the traffic you left behind will catch up to you anyway. And is it worth risking other people’s lives to get to your destination a minute earlier anyway? Of course not. And yet people sail right through them anyway. If there’s a high rate of that happening at specific intersections then city officials ought to consider why that’s happening. Perhaps there’s more they can do to improve the flow there.

As we said in 2007, there continue to be legal issues with red-light-camera enforcement. For instance, in some cases drivers have argued a friend or relative was driving. It will be important in this pilot project to make sure the images are clear enough for prosecution.

Then again, as we argued in 2007, that leads to privacy issues. What if the camera takes a picture of you that shows you’re cheating on your spouse and the evidence is mailed to your home? The “Big Brother” issue of onerous, intrusive government always surfaces when officials say they want to record you in public and keep a record of it. Some companies even include a video of the violation online. How easy is that to hack? And do you want something like that archived on the Internet?

But since the City Council has already approved the project all we can ask is that close attention is paid to these issues to make sure they don’t get out of hand. Of course the primary concern is reducing the law-breaking, but we ought to also pay equal attention to civil liberties.