Traffic cameras on pace to bring in more than $8 million for Cedar Rapids police over a year

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Traffic cameras have now been ticketing drivers who speed and run select red rights in Cedar Rapids for about two months.

Automatic traffic cameras on an overhead sign structure along Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids on May 13, 2019. (Mary Green/KCRG)

From July 1, when the cameras officially started ticketing again, through Aug. 29, the cameras caught 24,387 people speeding. That includes both tickets from the speed cameras along Interstate 380 and from the department’s mobile speed camera car, a white Chevrolet Malibu.

However, police said only 224 citations were issued from the Chevy.

The overall number of 24,387 citations over a 60-day period averages out to about 406 tickets per day. Each of those tickets costs $75, $55 of which goes to the Cedar Rapids Police Department, meaning that if all those tickets are paid, the police department is generating about $22,355 daily from the I-380 cameras.

At that pace, the department would make about $8.1 million over the course of a year.

The last full year the speed cameras were on, it generated nearly $5 million in revenue for police. While the ticket cost has remained the same, the police department was getting a smaller cut of it back then.

Cedar Rapids police also said 298 red light violations were picked up by the cameras since July 1.