DUBLIN — For now, a controversial traffic enforcement tool won’t be coming to Dublin.

A majority of the Dublin City Council on Tuesday agreed that installing red-light cameras wouldn’t be worth the cost and likely wouldn’t reduce crashes at the city’s more problematic intersections along Dublin Boulevard.

The council’s decision against exploring installing red-light cameras came after City Manager Colleen Tribby and city officials presented nationwide data showing “meaningful reductions” in fatal car wrecks and other crashes on streets where the devices were put up. Council members, however, weren’t convinced the numbers applied to Dublin’s roads.

In an interview Thursday, Councilwoman Jean Josey said that Dublin officials decided to study the cameras at the repeated request of residents who complained of drivers running red lights.

“The data that we were presented clearly did not show a need for the cameras,” Josey said. “We’re sensitive to the fact that residents are frustrated so we want to look at what else we can do at intersections.”

If the council was to move forward, two companies were being eyed as potentially getting a city contract: Verra Mobility and Modaxo, the largest such vendors in the state.

In 2021, Verra Mobility acquired Redflex, after the former Redflex CEO was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution for bribing a city official to get contracts for the red-light cameras.

Redflex once had several city contracts in the Bay Area, starting in the 2000s, but problems with their technology and fines as large of up to $500 later caused a backlash.

Hayward, San Mateo, Burlingame, San Carlos, Belmont, Redwood City, San Rafael and Menlo Park dropped the vendor, some citing the unreasonably high fines and questioning the effectiveness of the operation, where a ticket would arrive in the mail.

Fremont in 2017 paid nearly half a million dollars to residents after tickets were issued in what the city called a programming “snafu” that involved shorter yellow lights, a problem that was documented in other Bay Area cities.

Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas on Thursday told this news organization that his city got rid of the cameras in 2013 because they actually saw an increase in traffic accidents at intersections with the cameras.

He said once the cameras were installed at certain intersections, drivers would do one of two things: either “gun it and run the red light, or they would slam on their brakes” and cause a rear-end accident.

“I don’t remember it being this panacea for speeding and red-light runners,” Salinas said. “In fact, the cost to maintain the program and the amount of revenue we took in, I believe, was cost neutral. We didn’t make money, and we didn’t lose money.”

In short, he said, “we just didn’t think it was worth the hassle.”

Newark Mayor Mike Hannon, on the contrary, backed the city’s decision a few years ago to renew their red-light camera contract. He said “at the end of the day, we’ve seen it does save lives, it saves property damage.” Newark has not had a traffic fatality this year, which Hannon attributes directly to the cameras.

“Irrespectively of the cost, I want to make sure folks feel safe,” Hannon said.

In Dublin, officials identified Dublin Boulevard as a potential site for red-light cameras, where 47 total collisions between July 2020 and July 2025 at intersections along Dublin Boulevard. The boulevard’s intersection with Village Parkway had 15 collisions, there were nine at Dougherty Road, seven at Tassajara Road and six at Hacienda Drive.

The council may revisit the idea, with Vice Mayor Kashef Qaadri and Councilman John Morada open to more discussions, including after the soon-to-be-expected extension of Dublin Boulevard.