Emanuel has vowed to give motorists an extra chance to appeal tickets and to refund any issued improperly. More than 13,000 red-light tickets costing $100 each were generated at a dozen intersections where there were dramatic spikes in violations logged.
But critics say that simply writing refund checks won't restore public trust the city's system for enforcing violations.
"These spikes, you can tell they (the tickets) are fraudulent," said Scott Waguespack, one of the aldermen who sent Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson a letter asking for an investigation. "We are talking millions of dollars here and something is fundamentally wrong with the system."
In its review of tickets issued since 2007, the Tribune found intersections where violations increased from a few per day to as many as 56.
Neither Emanuel nor the city transportation department has suggested the possibility of scrapping the cameras, as Los Angeles, Houston and a few dozen other cities have in recent years amid questions about their effectiveness. The number of cities using the cameras peaked at 540 in 2012. By the end of 2013, that number had dropped to 503
