New traffic cameras are coming to the City of Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) —

They’re replacing the old red-light cameras that issued citations to drivers caught running red lights. 

The new cameras are always on — recording drivers going through an intersection. 

Casey Borton is a supervisor in the Wilmington Police Sting Center which provides real-time information by gathering information about criminal activities and suspects.  

“If an armed robbery happened, or a murder happened, or a hit and run happened, something that may not have triggered the red-light activation, which would’ve issued a ticket,” says Borton. 

Because the new cameras will be recording 24-7, Borton says it will be a tremendous asset for police. 

“The replacement is for that recording all the time because you’re in a public space, you don’t have any expectation of privacy in the public and on a highway or a state-maintained road, but as far as I know they’ll be recording all the time,” said Borton. 

Recently, the City of Wilmington pulled the plug on its contract with the company “SafeLight” for a number of reasons including ineffectiveness and financial losses.  

With the new cameras, WPD will have quicker access to the video. 

“It’ll be a little bit easier for us to access it because they should be implemented into the current video management system that the city of Wilmington uses for existing city cameras, and we already have direct access to that. Under the old system, we had to make requests in 30-minute chunks from the vendor, and we had to wait to get that footage back,” says Borton.  

The new cameras are set to be installed and fully operational by early 2026.