County considering school speed cameras
Published 9:15 am Wednesday, February 5, 2025
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The Troup County Board of Commissioners is considering school zone speed cameras similar to the ones recently installed in LaGrange.
On Tuesday, the commissioners heard a presentation from the Troup County Sheriff’s Office recommending an agreement with RedSpeed USA to install automated speed in school zones.
“We’re partnering with RedSpeed and the Troup County School System,” Troup County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Stewart Smith said. “It’s the same partnership that has already shown success with the Lagrange Police Department.”
Smith said the goal of the cameras is to reduce speeding in school zones, reduce vehicle accidents in and around school zones and ensure motorists comply with set speed limits to help keep students safe. The cameras would also help save on manpower investigating speed complaints in school zones, he said.
A traffic study was done on Dec. 17, which logged motorists going at least 11 mph over the limit during arrival and dismissal times. Callaway High School showed 97% violators. Callaway Elementary and Middle had 94% violators. Long Cane had 68% violators and Rosemont had 90% violators.
Smith said tickets will only be issued 30 minutes before arrival and 30 minutes after dismissal. Similar to the cameras in the City of LaGrange, tickets will only be issued to motorists exceeding the speed limit by more than 15 mph.
The cameras will have a 30-day grace period once the cameras are active, during which violators will be mailed warnings instead of tickets. Once the grace period expires, the first fine will be $75 plus an administrative fee of $5, for a total $80 ticket. Subsequent tickets will be $125.
The violators are mailed a notice and given 30 days to pay. If no payment is received, a second notice is mailed, and then a third notice is mailed, which gives a total of around 90 days to pay. A failure to pay after 90 days would result in a hold being placed on the violator’s registration.
Smith said the tickets are civil offenses, so no one is going to be arrested for failure to pay, unlike regular traffic tickets. He said the TCSO and the county are also working out a method to dispute the tickets.
Under the agreement with RedSpeed, the company would install the cameras at no cost to the county. RedSpeed would then get 35% of the proceeds from fines and the county would get the remaining 65%.
While the cameras will only issue tickets when they are flashing during arrival and dismissal times, they will always be active.
“They are also license plate readers that are operating on a 24-hour basis. We can utilize that for investigation tools. They capture that data, and it is stored there for 25 days, so if something happens in those school zones, we may have to use that data to investigate crimes,” Smith said.
The commissioners do not plan to vote on the cameras until their Feb. 19 meeting to hear input from the public.