DECATORS, Ga. (AP) – The sparkling eyes of camera ticket drivers speeding up the school zone along hundreds of Georgia roads outside Decatur, outside Atlanta.
Supporters say cameras slow down drivers and provide constant enforcement where understaffed police stations are not equal. But some state lawmakers want to ban them by saying that cameras are about generating money for local governments and camera companies, and some use them at first glance.
More than 20 states and the District of Columbia allow automated traffic cameras to issue speeding tickets, while more than 10 other states have banned them. However, it is rare for a state to reverse its position. New Jersey had pilot program test cameras to implement red lights, but in 2014 they pulled out the plug.
The Battle of Georgia comes to mind right at the General Assembly, with three separate bills moving forward from the committee. The state approved its first approved speed camera in 2018, but only in the school zone.
Opponents say cameras are about money, not safe.
More than 100 representatives of Georgia’s 180-member homes House Bill 225cameras are prohibited. Dale Washburn, a Macon Republican who supports the measure, provided emails from infuriated people who fired tickets across the state who said the lights weren’t flashing.
Georgia tickets are quoted by citizens and do not take place on driver’s licenses, but the state is blocking people who don’t pay for renewing their vehicle registrations. Almost 125,000 unpaid violations were reported in 2024, the Georgia Department of Revenue said. The camera has generated more than $112 million in revenue in 54 Georgia cities and counties since 2019. WANF-TV was found last year. Camera companies usually take a share of revenue.
“These camera companies are engaged in deception and trickery,” Washburn said. “Their goal is not to make children safe, but to write tickets.”
One of the issues with the abolition of cameras is that businesses become large political donors. Two major vendors, UK-based Redspeed and Tennessee-based Blue Line Solutions, have donated about $500,000 to the Georgia campaign in recent years, according to data compiled by OpenCrets, a nonpartisan watchdog tracking political money.
Others want to reform the use of cameras, but don’t finish it
Legislative leaders seem likely to support two other bills that hold the camera, but will more closely regulate them by providing better warning signs and limiting usage times.
“So the goal is to warn drivers that they are in the school zone and ensure that they are not cited without slowing down as long as they don’t speed up in the school zone during the designated time period,” said Sylvanian Republican Sen. Max Burns, who is sponsoring the company. Senate Bill 75.
An alternative House bill similar to Burns would require half the money raised safely at schools.
In Decatur, students will surge from Beacon Hill Middle on fire and walk along College Avenue, a two-lane street that is also the state’s highway. Unlike most places in Georgia, where most students go home by bus or by parents’ car, the majority of Decatur’s 5,300 students walk or ride their bikes home.
Decatur Mayor Patty Garrett said a Beacon Hill student was hit in a hit-and-run accident and cross security guards elsewhere were also hit before Decatur activated the cameras last fall.
“We really want to protect the most vulnerable residents, students, especially when they are on foot or on bikes,” Garrett said.
Violations are lower, but many drivers are still speeding up
Police Chief Scott Richards said speeding violations had dropped by 92%, according to a speed survey conducted by the company. However, there are still many drivers flying through five zones where Decatur uses the camera. They issued 4,500 valid quotes in January alone, he said.
“Without photo enforcement in the school zone, we wouldn’t be able to get these cuts,” Richards said.
Decatur officials advertise their modeling efforts by saying the city has a wealth of signs, running cameras for 30 minutes before and after schools begin in the morning, and they will fire them in the afternoon. The vehicle must travel 11 miles (17.7 km) per hour (17.7 km) in speed limit to quote.
Still, such as Washburn, say the amounts involved encourage overuse and bad behavior.
“We can’t trust profit-based law enforcement,” Milledgeville’s John Moore wrote in Washburn in February. “I hope we can convince my colleagues to vote this threat from our state forever.”
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