If you have ever been in your car waiting at a traffic signal in Los Alamos and wondered who is looking at you through the camera pointing down at you, the answer is, probably nobody.

Los Alamos County Traffic and Streets Division has 18 traffic cameras operating throughout town, mostly at intersections with traffic signals but also at Airport Road, Camino Entrada and at the roundabout on Diamond Drive. Many people believe that someone is constantly watching everything that’s going on, but that is not the case.

If you visit the office of Traffic and Streets Division Manager Dan Erickson, you can watch the video being radioed from the cameras on his television screen. However, the person most likely to be watching incoming video is Traffic Operations Manager Alipio Mondragon who can watch it on a wall of screens in the Traffic Management Center at Camino Entrada showing all the traffic flow in town at any given time.

The present system, which was installed just after the Cerro Grande Fire, operates on wireless technology, does not have the bandwidth to record video and wasn’t designed for that purpose. At that time, the system cost around $400,000 and included new cameras, radios, the video wall and operating consoles for the Traffic Management Center and the control software. The system was purchased with funding obtained from a federal grant.

There was no thought back then to giving police and emergency services the ability to use the system. Los Alamos Police Department dispatchers are unable to view the live video from the cameras and detectives are unable to review video for investigation purposes. Chief Dino Sgambellone said LAPD would like to see the different county agencies get on the same system because it would be cheaper and easier for maintenance.

Sgambellone said LAPD began meeting with County Information Technology and Public Works officials about six months prior to the budget process and that infrastructure design is moving forward. LAPD requested $60,000 this year to update the County’s camera infrastructure to allow LAPD access and monitoring of key locations from Dispatch but that request was denied. Public Works, LAPD Dispatch and Office of Emergency Management officials are actively seeking federal and state grant funding to accomplish this upgrade.

Most of the system in place is more than 10 years old, Mondragon said. He said it might be possible to record video but that one recording camera would drop all the others out of operation. Also, the current cameras do not have high enough resolution to see details such as license plate numbers although from the Traffic Center, Mondragon can zoom into the live video by times 35. Normally the cameras are angled to view as wide a field as possible in order to view traffic flow.

Mondragon said the Division usually just watches the incoming video if someone reports an issue with traffic signals or congestion on the streets. He said nine out of 10 times troubleshooting can be done without actually going out to the location of the traffic signal unless it’s a hard failure. He also commented that there’s lots of maintenance required on the current system and that almost all of it is done by himself and the Division’s electricians.

The Traffic and Streets Division oversees traffic and street operations, including maintenance of traffic signals, school flashers, site distance, streetlights, airport lighting, signs, work zones, traffic safety, and pavement markings, potholes, concrete curb and gutter, drivepads (apron area where the driveway meets the street), sidewalk repair, and right-of-way vegetation control.

This Division also performs professional traffic engineering services including traffic impact studies, traffic counts, speed studies, pedestrian walkability, bicycle accessibility, and various other traffic engineering studies and reports. Traffic and Streets is also the division responsible for snow removal throughout the County.

The Traffic Management Center welcomes group tours and in the past, has hosted groups of students from throughout the County. For more information, call 505.662.8113.