Bibb County collects $5.7 million from school zone traffic cameras

Since contracting a private company to manage traffic cameras in school zones, Bibb County has collected nearly $5.7 million from speeding tickets, according to county financial records.

Optotraffic, a Maryland tech company which later became part of Altumint, entered an agreement with Bibb County to manage school zone cameras in 2021. The first four cameras were installed in April 2022. 

Cameras enforce speed limits  in 20 school zones, with two schools — The Academy for Classical Education and Bernd Elementary — issuing warnings up until Oct. 21., after which citations will start to be issued.

“We have seen an immediate impact in driver behavior around all of our schools, not just the ones where we have cameras,” reads a testimony from County Manager Keith Moffett on Altumint’s website. “The Altumint team has been very responsive to our input about implementation and responsive to our need for information or when we needed to change our plans.”

David Gowan, the director of safety and security at Bibb County School District, said the cameras were initially put in place to ensure school zone speed limits were being respected.

He said since the cameras have been put in place he’s “noticed improvement in the behavior of motorists,” namely during morning arrival and after school dismissal.

Year by year, the county has received an increasing amount of revenue as more cameras have been installed, netting $647,232.05 in 2022, $2.3 million in 2023, and $2.73 million so far this year. 

Money from the citations goes toward a public safety fund managed by the sheriff’s office.

The county’s agreement delegates the duties of monitoring the cameras, issuing the citations, handling payments and creating court dockets to Altumint. The county is responsible for providing the courtroom and judge for disputed cases.

The county has collected about 30,000 citations this year. First time citations are $100 and subsequent citations are $150 and for every ticket filed, Altumint takes a cut of $25.

Macon resident Mike Newsome has gotten two tickets in school zones, the latest one off Zebulon where he said he was going 37 mph in a 25 zone around 9:15 a.m.

He said he feels like the traffic cameras are just “a revenue grab.” 

“I may just be disgruntled because I got two tickets, but I really (was) just like ‘wow I didn’t see that coming, what did I do,’” he said. “It just kind of caught me off guard.” 

Chris Floore, the Bibb County communications manager, said a reduced speed limit is enforced an hour before school starts and an hour after school ends. Flashing lights indicate the reduced speed limit.

The cameras continue enforcing both the regular and reduced speed limits throughout the school day. Cameras are shut off during the summer, as state law dictates enforcement can only occur when kids are in school, Floore said. 

Any drivers that go more than 10 mph over the speed limit are captured by cameras and a citation is created by Altumint before being verified by the sheriff’s office. 

Citations peaked this May, totaling 6,771. A similar number of citations were collected in December 2022.

Floore said the number of citations listed on reports from the county financial office does not reflect the number of citations issued by Altumint in the given time period. The process from capturing a violation to receiving payment from a violator can take months. 

Citations can be disputed in Macon-Bibb Municipal Court. 

The requests for and results of hearings are tracked and stored by Altumint, but those records are technically owned by the county, according to Altumint’s vice president of marketing Kristen Rose.

“The school zone camera tickets are not entered into our court’s database nor do we house the tickets,” LaTonya Slaughter, chief clerk of Macon-Bibb Municipal Court told The Melody.

Editors note: This story has been updated to note that revenue from cameras has increased along with the number of cameras in school zones.