Los Angeles red-light camera program to end this weekend

The Los Angeles Police Department will stop enforcing the red-light camera program this weekend after the Police Commission voted Tuesday to end the contract with the company that operates the cameras.

"We are not going to pay the contractor to support the system anymore," said LAPD officer Michael Gregg, who has worked in the red-light camera program for the last four years. "Without that contract, we don't have access to the data -- the videos, the photos."

In addition, LAPD officers will no longer appear in court on red-light camera cases, he said.

The L.A. City Council voted in July to shut down the controversial program, after the Los Angeles County Superior Court stopped aggressively enforcing collections against those who ignored the citations. Paying the tickets has been voluntary, and the city has no plans to pursue unpaid fines.

But the police department kept the contract with the Arizona-based company, American Traffic Solutions, to collect revenue from unpaid tickets. Over the past several months, gross revenue has continued to decline -- from $191,539 in September to $69,905 in January.