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 Two figures linked to the red-light camera scandal made
headlines this week: one by resigning as a Cook County commissioner and suburban
mayor, the other by facing bribery charges.
Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski submitted his resignation letter to
County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on March 6. In the one-sentence letter,
Tobolski stated he would leave office on March 31. He also resigned March 6 as
mayor of suburban McCook, also effective on March 31.
On March 5 the former deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation
and former top Illinois Department of Transportation official, Bill Helm, was
charged with one count of bribery, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Both Helm and Tobolski have been tied to former state Sen. Martin Sandoval, who
pleaded guilty to federal bribery and tax fraud charges in January. Sandoval
took $250,000 in bribes from SafeSpeed LLC. as the red-light traffic camera
company’s protector in the Senate and to help ensure the company was able to
install red-light traffic cameras in Chicago suburbs.
 Sandoval’s offices were raided by FBI and IRS agents last September as federal
agents zeroed in on the former state senator’s relationship with red-light
camera vendor SafeSpeed along with other projects he oversaw as chairman of the
Senate Transportation Committee.
Just days later, agents raided village offices in McCook, where Tobolski served
as mayor. On Feb. 14, Tobolski’s county chief of staff, Patrick Doherty, was
charged with three counts of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. Doherty
served as a sales representative for SafeSpeed and helped get cameras installed
in Oak Lawn by allegedly paying a $4,000 bribe.
Like Doherty, Helm also worked as a sales representative for SafeSpeed. In this
role, he received a commission from red-light camera fees collected in Matteson
and Glendale Heights. Both cities have said they have no knowledge as to who he
is. While Glendale Heights no longer contracts with SafeSpeed, Helm received
$4,156 in July 2019 from tickets in Matteson. Matteson has collected $5.6
million since installing cameras in 2016, according to data obtained through
Freedom of Information requests by the Illinois Policy Institute.
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Helm’s indictment alleges he paid off Sandoval on
behalf of a suburban construction company to get his support for a
state road project in East Dundee. Helm paid Sandoval at least
$5,000 between July 2018 and November 2018. It is unclear which
construction company Helm was working for. He owns WAH Consulting
LLC in Schaumburg.
Helm has a history of trouble at his places of
work. He resigned his job with IDOT in 2014 after being disciplined
for misusing state time and resources, including using his state
vehicle on a Sunday. He was caught by a red-light traffic camera in
Chicago. He left his job with the Chicago Department of Aviation
after a lawsuit claimed he was pressuring airport employees to do
political work.
Red-light cameras have long been a source of corruption, in 2016
sending a top Chicago administrator and an executive from Redflex
Traffic Systems Inc. to federal prison. They also have taken
significant amounts from drivers. An Illinois Policy Institute
investigation found red-light cameras collected more than $1 billion
in fines from Illinois drivers between 2008 and 2018, despite
producing no significant gains in traffic safety.
In fact, a study done by Oak Brook’s police chief found the cameras
have actually caused more crashes in neighboring Oakbrook Terrace at
the intersection where Sandoval worked to have them installed,
according to the Tribune. There were only 23 crashes at the
intersection of Route 83 and 22nd Street in 2015. When the cameras
came to life in 2017, the number of crashes rose to 36 and then to
49 in 2019. Rear-end crashes jumped from 14 in 2015 to 41 in 2019,
typically from drivers braking hard to avoid tripping the cameras
and being hit from behind. The cameras have generated $9 million for
Oakbrook Terrace in their two years of operation.
The call to abolish red-light cameras is louder than ever, and state
lawmakers appear to be listening. A partial ban, House Bill 322,
passed the Illinois House and is now in the Senate. A full ban,
House Bill 323, recently passed out of the House Rules committee
after languishing for more than a year and is now before the House
Transportation: Vehicles and Safety Committee.
Illinois lawmakers are right to ban the devices and undo the
corruption their former colleague worked so hard to inflict on the
state’s drivers.
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