The city of Gainesville and Alachua County directed staff to move forward with plans to install cameras in school zones to provide increased safety by automatically ticketing high-speed vehicles.
A 2023 traffic study showed 13 Gainesville schools, on a daily basis, had more than 500 cars speeding through the school zones—at more than 10 miles per hour over the active speed limit. An Alachua County study found eight schools with more than 1,000 cars speeding through at more than 10 miles per hour over the limit.
The plan’s implementation is still months away, with Alachua County hoping to start in January.
Dozens of other Florida counties and cities have also joined the speed camera project, but so far only High Springs Community School has a working system in Alachua County—implemented six months ago. The city of Alachua has greenlighted the project but is still working on setting it up.
At the county meeting, staff told the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) that not a lot of data has been collected because Florida is just now getting the projects off the ground.
The Florida Legislature allowed the speed cameras in 2023 and included guidelines for the projects. The guidelines only allow a ticket of $100, and the vehicle must be going more than 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.
The Legislature also decided how that ticket would be spent: $60 will go toward the law enforcement department running the program, $20 will go to the state of Florida for general revenue funds, $12 will go to the public school district, $5 will go to local crossing guard programs and $3 will go to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for training.
Both Gainesville and Alachua County plan to hire a vendor to operate the program, and the $60 per ticket slated for the law enforcement departments will need to cover the cost of the vendor as well.
The vendors will perform traffic studies, set up the cameras and also launch public awareness campaigns before the system goes into operation. However, law enforcement, whether Gainesville Police Department or Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, still needs to check the tickets that the vendor plans to send.
Police Department and Sheriff’s Office staff told commissioners that law enforcement will need to check the ticket to ensure the school zone was active and the ticket is valid or looking for any other discrepancy. Then, the vendor can send the ticket.
If the ticket is paid, that’s the end of the issue. If the ticket recipient disputes the claim, they can argue it before a special magistrate, leading either to paying the $100 or a dismissal.
If a ticket recipient fails to pay or seeks to dispute the ticket within 30 days, the violation will turn into a uniform traffic citation—a higher fee plus points docked against the driver’s license.
Alachua County Sheriff Emery Gainey told the BOCC that the sheriff’s office wants to implement the program but slowly. Staff recommended only starting at one school to study the impacts, including the staff time needed to manage the program.
Chair Mary Alford said she doesn’t imagine it’ll be a big lift for the sheriff’s office since the vendor monitors the camera.
Sheriff’s Office staff said it’s not as clear cut as some vendors might make it seem. Gainey said he’s not sure about the time cost since not many Florida counties have data available yet. He said High Springs Police Department staff spend at least four hours per day checking the speed violations from the school camera.
The county plans to have a six-month update to look at the number of violations, appeals, citations and staff time.
Alachua County’s speed study showed 17 schools with a heightened safety risk from speeding. The county will start with one of these schools with the option to expand to the others.
Gainesville Police Chief Nelson Moya addressed questions of whether the cameras would be active all the time or just when monitoring school traffic speeds. He said the city has the option to tie the school speed cameras into its existing network of cameras.
He said the cameras would be used after incidents and not have someone actively monitoring them. But the system can be used to track license plate numbers for AMBER Alerts and high-speed chases, like the camera system already in use.
Sounds like a step in the right direction, but nothing beats boots on the ground. Would love to see the traffic unit size increased as an active visible deterrent.
Law enforcement is just desperate to fill their pockets with our money, and harm tax payers with one more burden! “Oh, there are speeding cars in our survey” – but where are the real accidents and bad statistics to justify this measure? If the problem is really speeding cars in school zones, give the full revenue to the school district! Pathetic work by law enforcement. Go after real problems, not people driving at 40mph in a 30mph zone. That’s why we need to vote to get these clowns out of their seats.
Eduardo – The issue here is people speeding in a SCHOOL ZONE.It was explained quite clearly. The concept / technology is not new and has proven to ber cost effective and reliable in other areas of the nation in reducing deaths and accidents in school areas…Eduardo-are you voting in the upcoming election to “…getting these clowns out of their seats…” or are you just frustrated that you MIGHT (emphasis added) cop one of the tickets? Just askin’ my friend. Let’s not bash every idea that comes across as bad or negative.
It’s not law enforcement who is at fault here. It is the idiots who ignore school zone signs and speed through areas where children are crossing the street. The simple response to “law enforcement . . . desperate to fill their pockets with money and harm tax payers with one more burden” is to not exceed school zone speed limits. That way, youngsters–your children and mine–have less risk of being hit by motorized vehicles.
Your children are exclusively your business. Teach them to walk in sidewalks, pay attention to their surroundings, etc. Please stop making your reproductive choices and responsibilities impact others. We already pay school taxes for your children to go to school…
Long overdue. Once the word gets out as to how many are speeding and paying fines the incidents will undoubtably decrease dramatically. As a side note – couldn’t the SFC polica academy cadets (under oner officer’s supervision) review those tickets? It would be good training and very cost efficient not unlike one cashier supervising 4 stations at a self checkout in a store. Work smarter-not harder.
I pay their salaries and I say work harder, not smarter. Go to work, law enforcement! You are paid to be on the streets, not to put cameras out.
While school safety is paramount, I think this is a slippery slope. County will implement these money minting cameras on all roads. Do we want to become MD or VA?
Investing in crossing gaurds, increase in resource officers are the right things. Have more speed breakers- or ask anyone from UF’s transportation engineering for innovative ideas than these cameras. Someone is getting rich!
It will start with speed cameras in school zones. Soon they will be at busy intersections, main roads, etc. Mr. Good Citizen says “I follow the rules, I will never get a ticket”, until he gets distracted and gets a ticket – or two. And so does Mrs. Good Citizen. Very soon, speed cameras become a crucial revenue stream for the County. At this point, there is no way out! Law enforcement must work in school zones during school hours, not cameras and their well-paid operators. Stop penalizing us citizens! Inflation and the recent hike in living costs have already put a big burden on all of us. We elect and pay the salaries of County officials and law enforcement agents, and their duty is to safeguard and educate our community – not to create ways to extort money from fellow citizens because of traffic violations.