Do as I say not as I do!

If you call me that again, I'll put your ass in jail

City dismissed red-light camera tickets against Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s security detail

By GREGORY PRATT
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
NOV 30, 2020 AT 5:00 AM





The city of Chicago dismissed the majority of tickets issued to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s security detail by red-light and speed cameras, including some that were recorded at times when the mayor was scheduled to be attending non-city events, records show.


Since Lightfoot became mayor in May 2019, the police security detail assigned to her protection has received 13 tickets for speed and red-light camera violations, and 10 of those have been dismissed, records show.
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Though city officials did not address specific questions about her whereabouts at the time each ticket was issued, listings in her official calendar show some were given at times when her calendar suggests she was on the way home from a personal event or en route to a “non-city breakfast.”


Four were issued at a time when her official calendar doesn’t note her scheduled whereabouts or indicates “rest,” and another says she was supposed to be attending a virtual gala.


A city spokeswoman defended dismissing the tickets, saying cops are allowed to run red lights under certain circumstances.
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“The Chicago Police Department’s mayoral security detail is responsible for protecting the Mayor and her family at all times of the day. When traveling, this security detail is a two-car team — a lead car and a tail car — that is trained to stay together at all times for the safety and protection of the mayor,” the statement said. “Any and all red-light violations or speeding tickets dismissed by the City were done so when the tail car following the lead car became separated or in conjunction with City’s policies and practices when it comes to law enforcement vehicles.”
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Most of the tickets issued to Lightfoot’s security detail from the city’s cameras are red-light violations, but records show Lightfoot’s administration dismissed three tickets against her detail where officers were going more than 11 mph over the limit.









Mayor Lori Lightfoot's vehicles drive through a red lights. Many red light violation citations were issued and then dismissed. (City of Chicago)


Some of the dismissed tickets were issued to vehicles assigned to police officers on the mayoral security detail, not the lead and tail car that the mayor travels in, the spokeswoman added. Lightfoot officials did not answer when asked who was responsible for paying the tickets.

Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced similar questions about his security detail running red lights and speeding. In response to news reports, Emanuel publicly told his detail to slow down and personally paid the tickets, ABC-7 previously reported. But even after Emanuel said “no one is above the law” and ordered cops to slow down, his detail kept getting tickets.


“I said I was going to pay it, that is what I meant when I say ‘above the law.’ I couldn’t be more clear,” Emanuel said in January 2015.


Far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, a longtime critic of the city’s camera system who has also been a frequent opponent of Lightfoot, said dismissing the mayor’s security detail tickets “sends the wrong message.”


“If the law shows they went through the light unjustly, they need to pay the ticket,” Beale said. “You can’t have different standards for the people than for yourself.”


Lightfoot officials defended dismissing the tickets at a time when the city is lowering the standard for citing residents.


As a candidate, Lightfoot promised to reform the city’s fines and fees program, saying it was regressive and focused on generating revenue, not safety.
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“The red-light camera program was sold to Chicagoans as a public safety solution, but it’s really been about revenue — and those fines fall disproportionately on people of color,” Lightfoot said at the time.


Chicago aldermen on Tuesday approved Lightfoot’s $12.8 billion 2021 budget, which relies on boosting city revenue by raising property taxes and fines and fees at a time many Chicagoans are struggling to make ends meet thanks to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.


Under the mayor’s plan, anyone caught by a camera driving from 6 to 9 mph above the limit would get a warning. Getting caught on camera a second time would prompt a $35 ticket in the mail.


Mayor Lori Lightfoot's vehicles are pictured speeding drive through a red light on June 6, 2020, at 6909 S. Kedzie Ave. A speeding violation citation was issued and then dismissed. (City of Chicago)


Currently, only those caught driving 10 mph above the limit get the $35 tickets. Tickets of $100 are issued to drivers caught speeding by 11 mph or more above the posted limit. A spokesman for the Transportation Department recently said the city has not yet set a start date for when the 6 mph standard will go into effect.


The speed camera program has been controversial from the moment Emanuel introduced it in 2013. He pitched the network of cameras to catch speeders around parks and schools as a way to keep children safe, but critics painted it as a cash grab, pointing out many of the cameras were only tenuously connected to Chicago Park District and Chicago Public Schools properties.
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Chicago’s red-light cameras also have drawn blowback from officials and activists who argue they do little to make intersections safe. A Tribune-commissioned report previously found that at intersections with low rates of injury accidents, the cameras may make things more dangerous.


Mayor Lori Lightfoot's vehicles drive through a red light on July 25, 2020, at 3400 W. Diversey Ave. A red light violation citation was issued and then dismissed. (City of Chicago) (City of Chicago)


After the Tribune first reported Lightfoot’s plan to lower the threshold for speeding tickets, Lightfoot argued it’s a safety issue and said the city has seen “exponentially” more “speed-related accidents and deaths” in 2020, which she used to support her argument for implementing new speed camera standards that will catch more drivers.


But a Tribune review of publicly available city crash data found a more complicated picture of the safety situation than Lightfoot presented, with total crashes actually down from the first nine months of 2019, when there were 88,757, compared with the same period in 2020, when there were 69,480, records show.


City officials said deaths on the road are up in 2020 — 100 through September, versus 72 in the same period last year, with far less traffic. They also said city cameras are registering drivers speeding more — an average of roughly 2 mph faster than last year — which suggests to them that people are driving faster and causing more serious crashes.


Still, it’s not clear how many are caused by speeding.


gpratt@chicagotribune.com