Tallahassee is installing speed detection cameras in school zones throughout the city. The cameras can automatically track a driver’s speed and send them a ticket if they’re going more than 10 miles over the posted limit. Officials expect to have 26 new cameras up and running before the school year starts, August 11th. Here's how the devices will work.
Officials installed cameras in two school zones back in the spring just before the end of the last school year. And as citations from the new devices started rolling in, so did questions about what exactly could land somebody with a ticket.
Leon School Superintendent Rocky Hanna says he understands the confusion.
‘I, too, and I’m honestly, and I hate to say this, as superintendent – I’m confused as to when – is it just when the lights are flashing or is it all day long? Is it on Saturdays? What about the holidays?’
Hanna says those decisions are up to the Tallahassee Police Department. So WFSU asked Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell for some answers. He says the cameras will be on throughout the school day.
‘The lights come on 30 minutes before school – the flashing lights – and so, when that flashing light is on, either before school or after school, you have 10 miles an hour grace period over what’s on that sign,' he said. 'So, let’s say at DeSoto Trail, I think it’s 15 miles an hour. While that sign is flashing at 26 miles an hour, you will get a citation.’
But Revell warns drivers could be cited even when the school zone lights aren’t flashing.
‘In the middle of the day, when kids are there, the sign’s not flashing but our kids are still in school, then you have 10 miles an hour over the posted speed limit,' Revell said. 'So, on DeSoto Trail again, on Kerry Forest, I think it’s 30 miles an hour. So, at 41 miles an hour, you would get a citation. Only, again, while the kids are there. So, 15 miles an hour while the light’s flashing, 30 miles an hour are the speed limits.’
Revell doesn’t want to hear any complaints from people who get a ticket for going more than 10 miles over the posted speed limit. He says if drivers are going 11 miles over, they’re going too fast.
