EAST PROVIDENCE —  The current City Council, which inherited the situation from its predecessor incarnation, once again took up the contentious speed control camera program topic at its August 15 meeting, peppering with questions the president of the company running the operation for East Providence.

Sponsored on the docket by Ward 1 Councilor Frank Rego, each of the five members either inquired about the program or expressed an opinion about it, which in the roughly 18 months since being instituted has issued citations of some $8 million total.

The administration of Mayor Bob DaSilva is quick to point out, however, only about $5 million has actually been collected, realized as revenue by city. Finance Director Malcolm Moore told the Council at a previous meeting the administration budgeted $3 million in revenue from the program during the current 2022-23 fiscal year and expects to do so again in FY23-24.

William Braden, president of Sensys-Gatso USA, availed himself to the body for a rather meaningful discussion.

Though some elements of the program are obligated contractually, Braden said his company is always willing to engage the communities in which they operate about any concerns.

The five-year pact, agreed between the parties back in late 2020, runs through 2025.

Roughly a year earlier, the company came to a similar deal with the City of Pawtucket, where DaSilva and his director of administration, Napolean Gonsalves, were long-time employees of the police department there before taking on their current roles.

Braden's response was specific to a pair of questions by Ward 4 Councilor Rick Lawson, a critic of the speed control setup, on if the Council could change the times the program was in effect and the locations of where the cameras were situated.

Rego's questioning focused on the figures. Reading from a report generated by Sensys-Gatso at the end of June 2023, the cameras — both School Zone and Red Light — had captured 264,175 "incidents." From those, 195,944 tickets had actually been issued and some 70,000 had been "adjudicated" or dismissed in Municipal Court or by the East Providence Traffic Control Division officers tasked with determining if a ticket was warranted. And nearly 60,000 tickets issued have yet to be paid.

Rego also wondered if it were appropriate that Sensys-Gatso is responsible for collecting the monies owed for the fines and dispersing them to the city, another aspect of the contract between the sides.

As a refresher, the cameras are either located or planned for the following spots around the city:

School Zones — St. Mary Academy-Bay View, Kent Heights Elementary School, Riverside Middle School, St. Margaret School and East Providence High School

Red Lights —  Pawtucket Avenue at Warren Avenue, Pawtucket Avenue at Taunton Avenue, Broadway at Warren Avenue, Pawtucket Avenue at Veterans Memorial Parkway, Wampanoag Trail at Mink Street, North Broadway at Roger Williams Avenue, Highland Avenue at Catemore Boulevard, Taunton Avenue at Purchase Street and Broadway at Grovesnor Avenue.

The fine for a Red Light infraction is $85, $50 for School Zone. The tickets do not go on the record of the driver for insurance purposes, which admittedly disincentivizes payment by some.

Following up on his colleague's line of inquiry about statistics, Ward 3 Councilor Frank Fogarty requested clarification on claims by the administration that a vast majority of those fined were not residents of the city. Braden said a zip code report showed 74 percent of ticketed drivers lived outside of East Providence's three zones: 02914, 02915 and 02916.

Other concerns expressed by the Council were the impacts the program has had on the City Clerk's office as well as the Police Department.

EPPD Chief Chris Francesconi explained the four members of the department's Traffic Division spend approximately one hour per shift sifting through the images the cameras provide to determine if a citation is warranted for an infraction. Tickets are only given to motorists who are clocked driving 10 miles per hour or more over the posted speed limit.

Both Lawson and Fogarty wondered if placing officers in some form more regularly at heavily trafficked spots wouldn't be a better means of addressing the problem of speeding.

Lawson, referring to photos of ticketed drivers taken at times when there was little to no traffic at the locations of some cameras, said "A human being can better assess a situation than a camera."

Fogarty asked if it was feasible, contractually with the police union, to introduce a "pilot" program within the existing framework couldn't be initiated, using money collected to hire retired police officers to serve as arbiters of traffic around the city.

Francesconi said his department already receives federal and state funds earmarked for traffic enforcement, but hasn't been able to use it all because current officers aren't seeking the paid details nor are there enough interested former officers.

At various points during the discussion Gonsalves took umbrage to the perceived tact of the Council, saying multiple times "you guys would be encouraging people to speed" if any changes of significance were made to the program. The implication being the Councilors were willing to make driving less safe in the city.

His comments led Ward 2 Councilor Anna Sousa to request Gonsalves to "stop saying that" and her asserting many of the most severe traffic accidents occur at locations where there aren't cameras currently.

No directs actions on the speed control program were taken by the Council at the August 15 meeting. The members agreed to continue a dialogue with Sensys-Gasto through Braden and the DaSilva administration.

However, Rego, doing so he said in response to  concerns expressed by constituents, introduced a pair of ordinances meant to address traffic patterns on the streets around the School Zone camera located in front of the St. Margaret School on Pawtucket Avenue. Infractions caught on that camera of all around the city have led to the most tickets issued to date.

The Council gave the first of two mandatory passages to the following changes: no right turn on red light at Greenwood Avenue (eastbound) at the intersection of Newman Avenue; stop and yield intersections...all vehicular traffic is to stop Bishop Avenue (eastbound and westbound) at Barney Street.

In addition, the full body approved a resolution penned by Rego requesting the state, which owns the road, conduct an updated traffic study on Pawtucket Avenue.