As New York has moved to significantly expand its traffic camera programs in recent years, an Arizona-based technology firm has seen a financial windfall by parking itself at the center of those efforts, brushing off a 2020 lawsuit alleging it overbilled the city while also spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying.
In the last decade, the city’s camera network has spread from about 20 school zones to 750, gladdening street safety advocates.
The program, which was extended to 24/7 in school zones last year, appears to be working: Rates of speeding in camera-monitored areas dropped by 73% during hours of operation through the end of 2021, according to city data.
It has also meant big business for Verra Mobility Corporation, a Mesa, Ariz., transportation tech company that has inked four camera contracts with the city Department of Transportation since January 2014 worth a combined $951 million, public records show.
At the same time, Verra — whose city contracts were preceded by heavy spending on government lobbying — has been dogged by the 2020 lawsuit.
That lawsuit, filed jointly by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration and a whistleblower, accused Verra of erecting dangerously noncompliant electrical poles, installing more than 150 unnecessary poles and receiving millions in payments from the city for the allegedly unnecessary work.
The complaint was based on accusations from the whistleblower, an electrician named William Marshfield, and said Verra —...
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