Redflex Traffic Solutions Made Their Last Year Managing Chicago's Red-Light Camera Network Count

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 28, 2014 7:30PM

Image via NBC Chicago screen grab.

Redflex Traffic Solutions no longer holds the contract to Chicago’s red-light camera network but they were able to walk away from their contract with the city with a boatload of cash.

Mike Brockway, writing at both The Expired Meter and DNAInfo Chicago, reports the beleaguered company earned $24 million in the final year of their contract. Some of that revenue came even after Redflex was banned from bidding on new business with the city following an alleged bribery scandal involving John Bills, the former Chicago Department of Transportation official in charge of the program. (The city extended Redflex’s red-light camera contract three times before Xerox State & Local Solutions Inc. was awarded a deal to manage the network last October.)

Redflex's Australian parent company cooperated with federal investigators and launched an internal probe of the bribery scandal that revealed a consultant working with Bills was paid $2.03 million during a four-year period; it's believed some of the money was funneled to Bills.

The $24 million in revenue Redflex collected last year was the second-most profitable year in the company’s history managing the city’s red-light camera network. Redflex earned $125 million from the network in the decade it held the contract. CDOT spokesman Pete Scales washed the department’s hands of Redflex in response to a request for comment from Brockway and noted Xerox is working on improving the camera network by adding radar enforcement. But that may not soothe motorists aware that Xerox’s technology while managing Baltimore’s red-light camera network had a 5 percent error rate.