Red-Light Cameras Get the Greenlight in Redmond

Starting in 2026, at least five intersections in Redmond will be monitored by traffic enforcement cameras.

These locations are:

NW 6th St. and NW Maple Ave.
Highway 97 and SW Odem Medo Road
NW 10th St (by Tom McCall Elementary School)
Highway 97 and SW Veterans Way
SW Highland Ave. and SW Rimrock Way

“Our number one complaint that we receive with the police department is always traffic complaints, traffic enforcement,” said Redmond Chief of Police Devin Lewis during a Nov. 18 Redmond City Council meeting. “It’s also our number one call for service.” Lewis and the City Council believe that the traffic camera program will free up police department resources, benefitting public safety overall.

Making roadways safer in Redmond is still the primary goal. “We believe this is going to improve traffic safety,” Lewis said. “The hope is through this program we start to impact people’s driving behaviors and change those driving behaviors for the better.”

The city is acquiring fourteen cameras, including one “portable unit” that can be switched between locations, in a five-year contract with Verra Mobility, a “smart transportation” company based in Mesa, Arizona. A report authored by Redmond Police Lieutenant Curtis Chambers estimates “total contract costs” to be $4,375,200, but the possibilities of extra maintenance and part replacement for cameras could see spending beyond that.

Installation will begin in December, but enforcement won’t start until February or March. First, there will be a month-long warning period combined with a plan by police to “develop and implement outreach strategies, including public service announcements, social media content, school safety materials, and community presentations. The goal is to ensure residents are well-informed about the purpose, locations, and legal framework of photo enforcement before any citations are issued.”

In the long-term, the camera program “is projected to be ‘cost-neutral’. However, a fully mature program can take up to 18 months, or longer, to fully develop,” Chambers’ report states. There’s even a possibility of the cameras making a profit: “It is during the first 18 months of the program that citation revenue may exceed program costs, as driver behavior changes.”

And if the Redmond City Council or Police Department sour on Verra Mobility, this would leave them a way out. “Revenue received in excess of program costs will be accumulated to offset initial start-up costs (driver awareness campaigns), ongoing project costs, and to provide resources to exercise an early termination option, if necessary,” the report reads.

This article appears in Source Weekly November 27, 2025.