Cameras along Colo. 119, and how their data will be used

JOHNNIE ST. VRAIN

A Boulder-bound Honda passes one of the sets of cameras that have been set up along the Diagonal Highway. The system soon will be used to identify and fine speeders through the highway work zone. DAVE — COURTESY PHOTO

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Hey, Johnnie >> I enjoy your columns and thought you might be the man to dig into the mystery. The Colorado Department of Transportation has installed new sensors along Diagonal going into Boulder.

The city of Boulder says they’re CDOT. Can you get CDOT on the horn to tell us exactly what they are, what they track, and the point of the installation? What about the privacy of the data?

Cheers and best. — Dave

Hey, Dave >> Those devices you photographed are cameras that capture license plate numbers and time-stamp each photo. Another set of cameras further down the highway will take photos and time-stamp those photos, too. This system then takes the distance between those cameras and divides by the time it takes a motorist to travel that distance, determining miles per hour.

The purpose: To enforce speed limits through the Diagonal Highway work zones.

Several of the locations have cameras that capture front and rear plates.

This system isn’t active yet. As the Times-Call reported earlier this month, starting July 21, motorists traveling an average of 10 mph or more over the posted speed limit will receive warnings. Starting this fall, those motorists will be issued civil penalties — $75 per infraction, the maximum allowed by law.

According to Colorado Revised Statutes, 42-4-110.5 — which established these automated vehicle identification systems — the government and vendor of the system shall:

“(a) Program the automated vehicle identification system to retain data only when a violation of a county or municipal traffic regulation or traffic violation under state law occurs;

“(b) Treat all photographs and video collected by the automated motor vehicle identification system as confidential and exempt from disclosure and inspection pursuant to the ‘Colorado Open Records Act,’ part 2 of article 72 of title 24;

“(c) Not use, disclose, sell, or permit access to photographs, video, or personal identifiable data collected by the automated motor vehicle identification system except to the extent necessary to operate the program, including for purposes of processing violations, for other law enforcement purposes, for transferring data to a new vendor or operating system, or, pursuant to a court order, for use in unrelated legal proceedings; and

“(d) Destroy any photographs and video of a violation collected by the automated vehicle identification system within three years after the final disposition of the violation unless the photographs or video are maintained in a separate system for other purposes allowed by law.”

Additionally, authorities using this system may not issue points against anyone’s license for a violation. And any speeder caught doing something less than 10 mph over the limit may still receive a warning.

Thanks, Dave. By the way, I enjoy your columns, too. I’m just an amateur by comparison.

— Send questions to johnnie@times-call.com.