Georgia lawmakers push to ban automated speed cameras near schools
DECATUR, Ga, March 5, (AP): Outside Beacon Hill Middle School in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, like along hundreds of roadsides across Georgia, the unblinking eye of a camera tickets drivers who speed through a school zone. Supporters say cameras slow down drivers and provide constant enforcement that understaffed police departments can't equal.
But some state lawmakers want to ban them, saying the cameras are more about generating money for local governments and camera companies, and that some use them deceptively. More than 20 states and the District of Columbia allow automated traffic cameras to issue speeding tickets, but more than 10 other states have outlawed them.
However, it would be unusual for a state to reverse its position. New Jersey had a pilot program testing cameras to enforce red lights, but pulled the plug in 2014. Georgia's fight will come to a head soon in its General Assembly, with three separate bills advancing out of committees. The state first authorized speed cameras, but only in school zones, in 2018.
More than 100 representatives in Georgia's 180-member House signed on to House Bill 225, which would ban the cameras. Dale Washburn, the Macon Republican sponsoring that measure, provided a stack of emails from outraged people ticketed statewide who said lights weren't flashing, they didn't even know they were in a school zone, or the cameras were otherwise unfair.
While the tickets in Georgia are civil citations and don't go on a driver's criminal record, the state does block people who don't pay from renewing their vehicle registration. Almost 125,000 unpaid violations were reported in 2024, the Georgia Department of Revenue said. The cameras generated more than $112 million in revenue in 54 Georgia cities and counties since 2019, WANF-TV found last year. Camera companies typically take a share of the revenue.
"These camera companies are engaged in deceit and trickery,' Washburn said. "Their goal is to write tickets, not to enhance children's safety." One issue with abolishing cameras is that companies have become big political donors. Two big vendors, United Kingdom-based RedSpeed and Tennessee-based Blue Line Solutions, contributed around $500,000 to Georgia campaigns in recent years, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan watchdog that tracks money in politics.
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