Windsor Heights plans to ditch controversial speed cameras

The city of Windsor Heights announced Wednesday that it is dumping its controversial speed cameras.Windsor Heights plans to remove speed cameras on University Avenue on April 21, 2020, when its contract with the vendor ends.Many University Avenue business owners have clamored for their removal."It keeps our customers away sometimes," said Nailiez Pena, a waitress at Puerto Rico Restaurant.Lisa Rea's Suite Dreams store is not located on University Avenue, but she said customers avoid Windsor Heights altogether because of the speed cameras."I feel like sometimes it does (keep customers away)," Rea said. "They avoid Windsor Heights sometimes."Windsor Heights Mayor Dave Burgess said business complaints did not spur his decision to go along with the speed camera removal, but they did for some council members.Windsor Heights Police Chief Chad McCluskey said his department will move to other enforcement tactics to stop speeders in the city."One of the components will be the use of the digital speed sign displays that are connected to cameras," McCluskey said. "The city owns those, so we'll utilize those to remind drivers that they're speeding (and) help remind people to slow down."For Pena, the changes cannot come soon enough."I feel like it's gonna be awesome," she said. "More customers will come, because it's not just like one person told me the speed cameras are bad. Everybody has told me."The city has not closed the door on bringing cameras back someday.Windsor Heights made more than $2 million from the speed cameras in 2018. Burgess said removing the cameras will not hurt the city financially.Is Windsor Heights addicted to traffic tickets? This study looks at the numbers.