Colorado Springs should become the safest among all the country’s 50-largest cities. That means cracking down on crime, including common traffic infractions that kill.

The Colorado Springs City Council took a step in the right direction on Tuesday, authorizing police to position automated cameras that can catch multiple speeders at once and issue tickets. It is much like the city’s fixed red light camera program, only on prowl for excessive speed with cameras operated from vans.

Though public safety should be the highest priority of local governance, it doesn’t justify all law-enforcement tactics. We could take a chunk out of crime, and save lives, by allowing unwarranted searches and seizures of cars, homes, businesses and other private properties.

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We could empower cops to make stops without probable cause, and likely reduce crime and save lives. The law will not and should not allow any such tactics, as our culture values privacy and autonomy and tries to balance these rights with the desire for safety.

Enforcement of traffic laws on public roads raises no legitimate concerns about dystopian surveillance, in which our every move is open to government scrutiny. The city’s roadways are public and offer no expectation of privacy. Everyone has the right to witness traffic, with the bare eye or through a lens, and to see through the windshields of vehicles passing by.

No one, aside from authorized authorities in the line of duty, has the right to speed on public property. We have no unwritten right to get away with it unless caught and cited the old-fashioned way. Law enforcement officers, like civilians, have the legitimate authority to monitor traffic using advanced technology. They have the right to issue civil citations on a basis of evidence a camera records.

Colorado Springs, like much of the country, struggles with increasing violent and high-dollar crime. If we want our officers fighting against murder, rape, vehicular theft and armed robbery, we should not encumber them with tasks a camera can do more efficiently.

Colorado Springs recently set a record for fatal traffic fatalities, with 56 in 2022. Last year saw 50 too many fatalities and this year the trend is bad. Beginning now we should work to substantially lower annual traffic fatalities.

All indications say automated speed cameras will save lives. Cochrane Library, a database of systematic reviews, analyzed 35 studies of automated speed camera programs across the country. It found that automated cameras slowed drivers by up to 15%, reduced the proportion of vehicles that speed by up to 65%, and reduced fatal and serious injury crashes by nearly 45%.

Denver has used automated speed cameras since 1998. A 2016 review by the police department found a 7.6% decrease in average speeds on a road one week after a speed-enforcement camera was placed.

Colorado Springs Police Department data reveal speeding as the second-largest cause of traffic fatalities, coming in one point behind careless driving. Obviously, anything that discourages speeding is likely to save lives.

In a more perfect world, all on the road would obey the rules out of respect for their lives and the lives of others. In our imperfect world, people break traffic laws all the time. Speed kills, and the local government has an obligation to enhance public safety.

City leaders are wise use proven technology to crack down on violations committed in public, in the full view of anyone watching. Doing so tames traffic and saves lives.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board