Prioritizing liberty or safety has always been widely debated. Joining in the conversation this time is the Georgia General Assembly with House Bill 225, legislation to abolish the usage of school zone speed enforcement cameras statewide. The bill's leading sponsor is State Representative Dave Washburn (R-GA).
A battle over school zone speed cameras is rapidly becoming a fight over local control as safety, law enforcement, and local governments push back against legislative efforts to end a successful program to prevent accidents and injuries in school zones.
Communities have to jump through numerous hoops, including DOT and law-enforcement assessments of the speeding problem in school zones. Once in place numerous studies have confirmed that speeding in these areas drops 90% and the number of accidents in school zones is cut in half.
Pitted against these local governments, law enforcement, and concerned, parents are a number of legislators who say they have received complaints from speeders about the cameras and the send the tickets local cops use their data to issue.
State Rep. Washburn said during a recent committee hearing that the speed enforcement cameras are ripe for abuse and have made cities millions of dollars through hefty fees.
However, cities such as Decatur, Georgia, have seen a massive decrease in speeding citations in the five school zones that they are employed in. According to WABE (Atlanta PBS), Decatur has seen a 92% decrease in speeding violations since the beginning of the program.
Rep. Washburn argues, though, that the system for enforcing the fines that come with the speed cameras is not transparent.
“This ain’t about me getting tickets,” State Rep. Washburn said to the committee. “But I will tell you, I was sort of thankful I got it because it showed me some of the abuses that are involved. For instance, the envelope could’ve been easily been thrown away as junk mail.”
According to the PBS affiliate, Washburn's citation for the penalty was sent to his wife as the vehicle he was driving was in her name, and appeals to citations are normally upheld.
“Ladies and gentlemen [of the committee], this system is wrong, it is abusive, and it needs to be stopped,” Washburn said.
But is the solution to do away with school zone speed cameras entirely? Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot that abolishment of the school zone cameras is not the right course of action, but rather a focus on parameters to fix the problems of a rather successful initiative.
“If guardrails are needed, then that’s the way to go rather than, as one of the committee members said, burn down the barn to get rid of the weeds,” Garrett said.
“This is crazy,” said Ashley Rose-Toomer, a former school principal and Executive Director of Give Schoolkids a Brake — a non-profit school safety advocacy group. “If burglars complain about getting arrested, do we make home invasion and theft legal? I’m confused.”
Washburn's bill has over 100 co-sponsors. Senator John Albers (R) is the sponsor of the measure in the upper chamber.
