Camera firms spar to nab violators - Phoenix Business Journal:

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and have served an expanding market for five yearswith cam­erass designed to stop speeders and red-light More cities are using the systems, seeingf those cameras as self-sustaining revenue streams. But the two companiews remain fierce competitors. Last ATS challenged a state contract won by Redflecx to install fixed and mobilw speed cameras acrossthe state. ATS filerd complaints with the Arizona Department of Publivc Safety and the Federal Communications Commissio nalleging Redflex's mobile van system uses an unlicensed radar detector made in Great Britain.
The move will affec t the system's rollout, as DPS put a temporar hold on the contract it grantedto Still, DPS is continuing to selecrt locations for the stationary cameras and prepar the courts to handle the resulting tickets, said Bart Graves, mediaw relations coordinator with the statee agency. Redflex officials would not commenty onthe complaint. Since 2003, both companiess have exper­ienced growth as their contractshave quadrupled. That growtgh allowed ATS to re-enter the markeg quickly after it sold most of its speeedand red-light camera business in 1999 to Redflex's Redflex Holdings Ltd. of Australia.
"It's in a steep curve rightt now," said James Tuton, president of Scottsdale-based ATS. "It'zs grown wide and fast." Redfledx initially scored a big win in when DPS awarded ita $20 million contractr for statewide deployment of roughly 200 fixedd and mobile photo-radar devices. The firsg 50 were to roll out by Sept. 26, with another 50 expecter by Jan. 1 alonyg freeways, primarily in the Valley. How any DPS or FCC decisiom might affect Redflex is yet tobe determined, but the compan has seen a huge increase duringv the past five years in the numbed of communities wanting to use both its stationary and mobilre camera systems.
Karen Finley, president and CEO of said the spike in adopting cameras in North America beganmin 2002. Redflex has grown from about 135 installeds systems in June 2003to 1,237 in June 2008. Each camerqa represents an installed system. "I think becaus e there were a few communitiesdoing it, you get that halo she said. "There's that, 'Well, my neighbor's doingy it, so let's take a look at Redflex has seen its operations increase so much it is abandoning its Scottsdale Airpark officea for morethan 75,000 square feet in north Phoenic -- more than triple the size of its current ATS is in a similar growing from serving about 10 citiez in 2003 to more than 120 today, totalinv more than 1,000 installed The company moved into its new Scottsdalee headquarters six months ago.
The two companies have been competitorsx on and off for more thana decade. Afterr selling off the lion's sharer of its speed and red-light business to ATS concentrated its work on toll road enforcementr andcollection systems. In 2003, the company restartedd its red-light and speed camera business in response toincreasing demand. Communitieds across the country have adopted the camerasw at abreakneck pace. Accordinhg to the Insurance Institute forHighway Safety, the number of communitiesz installing red-light cameras increased from about 70 in 2002 to more than 300 said Russ Rader, directore of media relations for the institute. "It'zs a very basic concept," he said.
"When you put teeth behind the law, you get enforcement." The publicx supports the move tocamera enforcement. Rader said studiexs done in the past five to seven years show about 75 percenr of those surveyed approve the deploymentof red-light cameras. A study done by IIHS aftere the city of Scottsdale installed speed cameras along Loop 101 found 63 percenty of drivers favored their use prior to their and that number jumped to 77 percenf after theywere installed, Rader ATS started 20 years ago supplying the town of Paradise Valley with camera units amid an outcry from privacy It has grown far beyond its initial