The traffic camera war continues on unabated, with a new member in those towns resisting the move–Barrington.

It might surprise you to hear that one of Chicago’s many suburbs decided to go the route of NOT videotaping its citizens’ every move,   And it probably wasn’t the easiest of decisions, especially after hearing about how one such camera in nearby Schaumberg generated fully one million dollars in a matter of weeks before it was taken down.

But Barrington officials looked at the matter and came to one important decision: they’d rather have five million a year in taxes in five years than a million dollars tomorrow.  See, Barrington’s been trying to revitalize its downtown district, and the cameras in Schaumberg were actually keeping people out of the downtown.  So Barrington realized, hey, if we put in these cameras, we’ll make a fortune but everyone will stay away from downtown in droves.

And that’s why there are no red light cameras in Barrington.  For now.