LOS ANGELES– The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) has installed the first-ever automated camera in the United States designed to ticket drivers who make “boulevard stops” or slow to a crawl at a stop sign without fully ceasing forward motion, according to the Web site www.thenewspaper.com. The agency began issuing $100 fines Jul. 9, at Franklin Canyon in the heart of Los Angeles, located off of Mulholland Drive and at the top of Topanga.

With the new stop sign cameras, a machine will make calculations to determine whether a vehicle did not stop for a long enough period and deserves a fine. Australian camera vendor Redflex will operate the program in return for a $20 cut from every ticket the company is able to issue. California law explicitly prohibits both speed cameras and per-ticket photo enforcement contract provisions, but the MRCA believes the law does not apply to them, according to the Web site www.thenewspaper.com.

In 2000, the California legislature banned photo radar with a statute clarifying that although it authorized the use of photo ticketing at traffic signals, the legislature, “does not authorize the use of photo radar for speed enforcement purposes by any jurisdiction.” Another provision specifies that, “A contract between a governmental agency and a manufacturer or supplier of automated enforcement equipment may not include provision for the payment or compensation to the manufacturer or supplier based on the number of citations generated.”