SEATTLE — Seattle Police said it has issued 5,300 tickets to registered owners of vehicles photo enforcement cameras have caught crossing the lower Spokane Street Bridge without authorization.

That represents an average over 350 per day since ticketing officially began Feb. 1. The cameras were activated Jan. 11.

A spokesman for Seattle Municipal Court said 3,308 violations have been filed with the court after being sent over by SPD and the city’s photo enforcement vendor, Verra Mobility. The Arizona based company operates all the photo enforcement cameras in the city including one at each end of the bridge.

It’s responsible for sending out tickets to the vehicle’s registered owner after a Seattle Police approves the violation took place, but there are questions about the verification process.

The cameras operate under the same laws as red-light cameras but with a big difference – there are allot of exemptions.

“A red-light infraction is a pretty cut and dry issue” said Chris Steel, Photo Enforcement Program Manager for the Seattle Police department. “If you run it, you run it, and that's when you get a notice. It’s nothing like what is on the lower Spokane Street Bridge.”

That’s because of all the exemptions allowed on the bridge.

Only emergency vehicles and some situations like a funeral process are exempt from running a red light. As it stands now, emergency vehicles, freight, transit and school busses, employee shuttles and van pools are all allowed to use the lower bridge.

And there’s a group of 650 ‘pre-authorized’ users that have also been approved by SDOT to use the bridge going into the month of March.

Verra Mobility uses their license plates number as a screening tool. SPD gets videos from Verra of all potential un-authorized users cross the bridge. By law, a sworn officer must decide if there’s enough video evidence to issue the $75 ticket.

But the verification is proving to be very time consuming Steel said and the officers are not cross-checking the license plates of potential violators with the list of authorized users supplied by SDOT.

“SPD is not going off a list to match up of a plate, just because of the time constraints that are required," Steel said citing a man power issue. "We're in a sense trusting that the vendor has made their correct assumption."

Steel said trucks are proving troublesome as well. Freight is a high priority and allowable use because the bridge serves the Port of Seattle but the threshold of allowable freight is a truck with gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds. It’s essentially the size of a medium size box truck

“At this point if there is any question by the officer what they are looking at, they will just reject it," Steel said.

Steel said officers are trusting Verra’s screen process is correct and all the authorized users of the bridge have been screened out of the process.By law, a Seattle police officer will review the violation, and approve it before the ticket is sent to the violator.

KOMO News did not find any language in state law allow for officers to trust a photo enforcement vendor.

The exemption process began after West Seattle businesses, the maritime industry and longshoreman pushed SDOT hard for access to the bridge.

When the upper West Seattle Bridge closed in March 2020 because of cracking, main alternative for the 100,000 daily users became the lower Spokane Street Bridge.

There was no way that amount a traffic could fit on a two-lane bridge. Hard choices had to be made.

“This situation that we find ourselves in is nothing anybody planned for," said Heather Marx, Seattle Department of Transportation’ Project Manager for the bridge repair.

SDOT’s main priority for the lower bridge was to keep it free of traffic as much as possible so emergency vehicles can pass without hesitation.

“That’s what we are most worried about," Marx said.

Math wizards at SDOT estimated the bridge had to be limited to 450 vehicle trips per hour to prevent traffic backups on the bridge.

That became the magic number for future decisions involving who and what kind of vehicles would be allowed to use the lower bridge until the upper bridge is repaired.

SDOT gave top priority to emergency vehicles, busses, freight, employee shuttles, van pools and what is becoming the controversial wild card, "pre-authorized vehicles."

Marx said about 500 trips of pre-authorized users per day is the target. That’s not 500 per hour. That’s 500 per day for the 100,000 daily users of the upper bridge.

“There was originally a complete restriction of just freight and transit," said Dan Austin,West Seattle Chamber of Commerce President.

The installation of photo enforcement cameras provided an avenue to control the access of pre-authorized users.

Longshoreman Kenny Roll is one of those users because he’s a crane operator at the port.

“If we can't get there and we are late, the ships are late, and it just messes everything up," Roll said.

Pre-authorized users are exempt from getting a ticket for crossing the bridge. They can not use their exemption for commuting purposes.

“If I was found to be abusing it, my license can be removed from the list," Roll said.