According to one public safety survey that started on Oct. 1, Orland Park residents want to see the village bring in speed cameras to the village.
For the most part, Orland Park officials are ready to green light bringing them in, but legally, they want to untie their hands from state law language before moving ahead.
According to the Illinois General Assembly website, only municipalities with 1 million or more people can enforce penalties via speed cameras.
At the Oct. 5 Committee of the Whole meeting, the board continued trying to tweak and make changes to codes and fine structures. The addition of speed cameras was brought up at a previous meeting but has been removed from the conversation for now.
“We need to do our due diligence on that,” Orland Park Village Manager George Koczwara said. “The state code is specific to Chicago. We would be using the village’s home-rule authority to issue nuisance violations. After two warnings, there would be a nuisance violation.”
The board is also considering purchasing noise cameras. There is one Flock camera in the village and more have been purchased, but they have yet to arrive.
Trustee John Lawler said working on getting speed cameras to town is a priority if it’s done within the law.
“A lot of people were in favor of the speed enforcement cameras,” Lawler said. “It’s not gone, we’re just tabling it for now until we can do more research.”
Aside from the Oct. 1 survey, the village is also launching its first Village-Wide Neighborhood Traffic Safety Study to identify neighborhood traffic issues and develop consistent, data-driven solutions.
“Public safety is the baseline for quality of life in Orland Park,” Orland Park Mayor James Dodge said in a news release. “With clear rules for vehicle-based events and stronger tools to address mobile nuisance parties, we’re reinforcing that standard.
“At the same time, we’re listening to residents. We’ll continue our due diligence on speed and noise cameras and launch the Village-Wide Neighborhood Traffic Safety Study, so solutions are data-driven and community-supported.”
Police Chief Eric Rossi added the village is combining common-sense rules with modern tools.
“As the village continues due diligence on speed and noise cameras, the village will support a robust traffic safety study, including workshops, neighborhood meetings and a statistically representative survey, to ensure our recommendations reflect real conditions and resident priorities,” Rossi said.
