Speed cameras activate tomorrow, August 12th at 19 of the 66 public and charter schools in Manatee County. Manatee County gained the authority to install the cameras last year when Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 657.
Special speed detecting cameras have been installed within 500 feet of these 19 schools. When the camera determines a vehicle has exceeded the speed limit by more than 10 MPH, it generates a violation. RedSpeed, the camera vendor that Manatee County is using, says these cameras are accurate to within 1 MPH.
Once a violation occurs, a Notice of Violation is mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle. The violation includes the date, time, location, and photo evidence. The violation comes with a $100 fine, of which $77 goes to the county per Florida Statutes 316.1896(5). The owner can pay the fine within 30-days and receive no points on their license and have no affect on their car insurance. Alternatively, the owner may request a hearing within 30-days to dispute the violation, or submit an affidavit for dismissal if someone else was driving. If the owner doesn’t respond to the violation in 30-days, then it becomes a Uniform Traffic Citation with fines starting at $306 and 3 points on your license. For the first 30 days after activating the cameras, no fines will be issues, only warnings.
Speed enforcement is based on the signage within the zone. For example, when the school zone sign is flashing, the camera will issue violations for speeds exceeding 10 MPH over the flashing school zone speed limit. When the sign is not flashing, but during the enforcement period (school day), the camera will issue violations for speeds exceeding 10 MPH over the normal posted speed limit. Basically, the cameras enforce the reduced speed limit during the flashing school zone times. They also enforce the regular speed limit during non-flashing school hours. That’s nine hours or more of speed enforcement every school day.*
All of the speed cameras are also equipped with License Plate Recognition (LPR). This transforms the optical license plate data into digital information. I basically “reads” the license plate from the video. The cameras check the license plates of all vehicles that drive past against active Amber Alerts and police hot lists (stolen vehicles, wanted suspects, etc.) in real-time.
According to RedSpeed, these cameras record video 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The footage is archived for at least 45 days for events captured outside of speed enforcement.
Privacy advocates have long complained about license plate readers. These are mounted everywhere from the local police vehicles, airport entrances/exits, repossession tow trucks, toll plazas, and elsewhere. The ACLU says that information captured by the readers—including the license plate number and the date, time, and location of every scan—is being collected and sometimes pooled into regional sharing systems. As a result, enormous databases of innocent motorists’ location information are growing rapidly. This information is often retained for years, or even indefinitely, with few or no restrictions to protect privacy rights.
These cameras were approved by the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners on February 13th this year. Deputy County Administrator Courtney De Pol presented the ordinance and showed slides about pedestrian accident injuries/fatalities and speeding. These slides referenced news articles, not actual studies, and there was no data or evidence in school zones whatsoever. This was brought up by a community member during public comment. This community member also brought up how school zones already have flashing lights, a reduced speed limit, crossing guards, and typically a police presence.
The law says that Manatee County “must consider traffic data or other evidence supporting the installation and operation of each proposed school zone speed detection system,” and “must determine that the school zone where a speed detection system is to be placed or installed constitutes a heightened safety risk that warrants additional enforcement measures”.
You can watch the public hearing here (starts at 1:52:53). The measure passed 7-0 and we got County Ordinance 24-31. Since then, RedSpeed has donated to re-elect County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, and to elect April Culbreath and Steve Metallo to the County Commission.
6 North Manatee County Schools with the speed cameras
Virgil Mills Elementary/Buffalo Creek Middle
8/12/2024 – Cameras activate and run from 7:30 AM – 4:40 PM
Barbara Harvey Elementary
Camera activation TBD and will run from 7:30 AM – 3:45 PM
Williams Elementary
8/12/2024 – Cameras activate and run from 7:30 AM – 3:45 PM
Blackburn Elementary
8/12/2024 – Cameras activate and run from 7:30 AM – 3:45 PM
James Tillman Elementary
8/12/2024 – Cameras activate for 29th St E and run from 7:30 AM – 3:45 PM
9/16/2024 – Cameras activate for 16th Ave E and run from 7:30 AM – 3:45 PM
Palm View K-8
8/12/2024 – Cameras activate for 61st St E and run from 7:30 AM – 3:45 PM
9/16/2024 – Cameras activate for Bayshore Rd and run from 7:30 AM – 3:45 PM
Full list of schools available at mymanatee.org/speedcams
What do you think? Did the County present traffic data or evidence that supported the need for car tracking speed cameras in school zones? Are you in favor of speed cameras or oppose them? Let us know in the comments.
*Correction – We said speed enforcement increased from one hour to nine hours, but there was no previous dedicated enforcement. We also listed reduced speed limit for the entire active camera period, but the reduced speed limit varies depending on the time of day.
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