School zone cameras can keep on ticketing after two bills die in the GA legislature

Atlanta - To Georgians who don’t like automated cameras issuing speeding tickets – get used to them.

Despite calls for change, the school zone cameras aren’t going anywhere, at least until the 2025-26 school year.

Georgia lawmakers, who’ve been hearing complaints about the cameras for years, pushed bills in this year’s legislative session that would have restricted when the cameras can ticket or forced police departments to shut them down. One of the bills passed unanimously in the House last year.

But the Georgia Capitol can be where ideas go to die. Like a measure calling for a statewide vote on legalized sports betting, or a bill restricting mining in the Okefenokee Swamp, the two bills that would have changed how school zone cameras operate didn’t reach the finish line before "Sine Die" last week.

"Sometimes it just takes a couple of sessions to get it moved," said state Rep. Clay Pirkle, R-Ashburn, who wants to ban the cameras. "It can be frustrating."

Last year, the FOX 5 I-Team exposed a glitch in some cameras that caused Jonesboro to ticket hundreds of drivers based on the wrong speed limit, with the city eventually agreeing to refund or dismiss 1,244 citations totaling $76,400.

Despite such errors, supporters of the cameras say they keep children and teachers safe outside schools. One camera company, RedSpeed, provided statistics to the FOX 5 I-Team showing that in some locations, speeding has dropped by 84 to 96 percent, and that most drivers only need one ticket to get the message to slow down.

"Communities across the entire state of Georgia are having a hard time recruiting police officers," Christopher Cohilas, an attorney for RedSpeed and a former Dougherty County Commission chairman, told the I-Team in February. "And for every police officer that we can take off the street from having to run radar – and actually having them solve crimes, like murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults – that helps the community."

In 2018, the state legislature passed a law that opened the doors for dozens of municipalities across the state to contract with private companies to ticket violators using automated cameras, which now stand guard on roadways outside schools throughout Georgia.

The I-Team found the companies typically take a cut of about a third of each ticket paid. The law allows for fines of $75 for the first offense and $125 for any offense after that, but the amount owed can be higher in some jurisdictions with fees tacked on.

The 2018 bill passed after midnight before that year’s "Sine Die," reportedly with help from then-Speaker of the House David Ralston, whose son Matt Ralston was lobbying for speed camera company American Traffic Solutions. Pirkle’s proposal, House Bill 1126, would have overturned that law, barring the cameras altogether in what he called a "do-over." His bill received unanimous approval from the House Motor Vehicles Committee, but never made it out of the Rules Committee, dying on Crossover Day.

"There’s a lot of good bills that don’t make it across the finish line," Pirkle said. "The pace that we go in the General Assembly, sometimes it takes several sessions in order to get bills passed."

After serving nine years, Pirkle isn’t seeking reelection and won’t return for next year’s legislative session. He said his plan to banish the cameras will return, though.

"I talked to several representatives that said, ‘Hey Clay, you’re not coming back. First dibs on school zone cameras,'" he said. "It is popular with my constituents, both Democrats and Republicans. It’s popular with my representatives, both Democrats and Republicans. This is something we could unite behind. We are not a surveillance state."

Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, carried another measure that would have restricted automatic ticketing to times when orange school zone lights are flashing and required uniform street signs wherever cameras are placed.  Albers said the bill also would have barred camera companies from profiting on a per-ticket basis.

Though it cleared the House in 2023, House Bill 348 didn’t reach the Senate floor.

The I-Team learned that lawmakers discussed adding school zone camera provisions to a bill dealing with local government services, but the bill's Senate sponsor said he feared that could invite a legal challenge.

One Georgia driver, Gloria Jackson, said the outcome disappointed her. She told the I-Team she’s received so many tickets in South Fulton, she had to surrender her 2016 Honda Civic to the dealer, because by law, she couldn’t renew her car tag until she paid the fines.

"I have other bills," she said, explaining she's on a fixed income of Social Security disability payments. "I still had a car note to pay. I have insurance to pay. I have rent to pay. I have day-to-day living. And if I give it all to them, I’m promising, I’m not going to have enough to make it."

Jackson showed the I-Team three of her citations, but said she received a total of a dozen or more in 2021 and 2022, outside Feldwood Elementary and Hapeville Charter schools.

Asked why she didn’t slow down, Jackson said, "I didn’t know that I had that many at one time until they all came, piled up in the mail."

To Jackson and other critics, her situation points to a problem with the school safety argument: If a driver gets a ticket from a uniformed patrol officer, there's an immediate message to slow down. But a ticket from an automatic device may take weeks to reach a car owner by mail, and tickets can rack up before the driver knows they have even one.

"I slowed down in those areas," Jackson said. "Thought I was slowing down. But didn’t know that I had already racked up many, many, many more."

Jackson said she drives rental cars now.

"It’s sad," Rep. Pirkle said. "That’s what happens with school zone cameras. You can speed through there for four or five weeks until you get an infraction, and you might have several. It has not slowed you down for five weeks."

The I-Team reached out to three camera companies operating in Georgia – RedSpeed, Blue Line Solutions and Verra Mobility – but none offered any comment on the failure of the two bills.