Crime & Safety

County is Confident in Laser Speed Cameras Despite Baltimore's Problems

"There has not been a need to plan for an outside audit" in Howard County, a police spokesperson said.


Howard County police said there is no need for an audit of the county's speed camera program because the laser technology and policies the county uses are different from Baltimore City's, where an audit found a significant amount of erroneous tickets being issued.

The audit caused Baltimore to abruptly end its relationship with its speed camera vendor, Xerox State and Local Solutions, according to a Baltimore Sun report. Xerox supplies Howard County with its speed cameras—two that operate from vans and two other portable cameras.

"Although we both have used the same vendor, Xerox, the technologies they have provided us share few similarities," wrote Sherry Llewellyn, Howard County police's spokesperson, in an email. "Invalid Xerox citations in Baltimore were specifically linked to radar, not laser, technology. Howard County uses laser only.

"We have had no indications of erroneous speed camera citations being sent in Howard County, so there has not been a need to plan for an outside audit of our program," wrote Llewellyn.

Baltimore City's audit was conducted in 2012 by URS Corp., a consulting firm. It found an error rate of more than 10 percent, which one city council member called "outrageous," according to the Sun report. 

Howard County primarily operates its cameras in school zones with significant speed problems, according to Llewellyn. She said Baltimore acknowledged in the past some of its citations were not properly validated.

"Howard County citations are reviewed in a much more thorough, multi-step process, by multiple police employees, helping to ensure citations do not go out in error," wrote Llewellyn.

So what's the difference between radar and laser cameras?

Laser cameras shoot a beam of light to determine a vehicle's speed, while radar cameras use radio waves, according to an article on AOL Autos.

Both radar and laser speed measurement technologies have been proven accurate for decades, according to a USA Today report, although lasers are believed to be slightly more accurate.

Fernando Berra III, a photonic engineer who spoke with the Sunsaid lasers are more accurate than radar but can still produce errors. He told the paper an audit of any speed camera system "would find similar errors."

Related Articles

Police to Deploy Two New Mobile Speed Cameras in School Zones

Speed Camera Avoidance Tactics: Some Legal, Some Not

Howard County Speed Camera Torched

Speed Camera Vendor: Timestamps Not Accepted Method to Calculate Speed



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