New legislation leaves fate of school zone cameras unclear

Becca Richard walks her son to and from Vineville Academy of the Arts every school day. She’s seen plenty of speeding cars zoom past them on Vineville Avenue.

Some Maconites might disagree, but, for Richard, there’s little doubt that school zone speed cameras are necessary on the high-traffic road.

“Why not have that extra piece of accountability?” she said.

Bibb County voters could decide as soon as July 2027 whether they agree with her.

At the end of its session, the General Assembly passed House Bill 651, which requires local governments to get the permission of voters in order to keep the controversial school zone speed cameras in their communities. Existing cameras would continue to operate until contracts with the private vendors that run them come up for renewal.

Opponents of the cameras see them as a money grab and argue that they are getting installed more as a way to generate revenue than as a safety measure.

Tickets are issued to anyone driving more than 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit, starting an hour before the school day begins and running until an hour after it ends, county spokesperson Chris Floore previously told The Melody. 

The cameras record vehicles and automatically issue citations if the speed limit is exceeded. Payment is accepted through an online payment portal. 

Macon-Bibb County has a contract with Altumint, a Maryland-based company specializing in traffic enforcement technologies. The company installs the cameras, issues the speeding tickets and collects payments. The revenue is then funneled to the county.

Altumint takes a $25 cut from each ticket.

In Bibb County, $4.2 million was collected in 2024. 

According to the county’s agreement with Altumint, the contract renews automatically at the start of every July unless either the camera company or county says otherwise. 

The county will review the implications of the law before taking any action, officials said.

The legislation passed would also prohibit the cameras on four-lane roads without crosswalks and require flashing yellow lights, speeding indicators and posted notice of the cameras.

The first cameras in Bibb County were installed in April 2022 and have since grown in number. Now they are located in more than a dozen school zones.

In addition to the cameras close to Vineville Academy, the automated ticketing systems can be found near Appling, Ballard-Hudson and Weaver middle schools; Rutland Middle and High; Springdale, Heard, Hartley, Sonny Carter, Heritage, John R. Lewis, MLK, Porter, Bruce and Ingram-Pye elementary schools; Southwest and Westside high schools; and Northwoods Academy.

Individual public schools cannot opt out of the cameras under the county’s agreement with the Bibb County School District, which has complete discretion to have cameras installed. 

The Academy for Classical Education, First Presbyterian Day School and Windsor Academy also have cameras nearby.

No pedestrian deaths have been reported in a school zone in Bibb County between 2020 and 2024, according to The Macon Newsroom.

Richard knows that no one likes getting a ticket. She’s gotten one herself. But she sees it as “just the price of doing business.” 

The citations are treated as civil offenses and do not count against a driver’s record. However, if citations go unpaid, the state can suspend a violator’s car registration.

The bill would mandate the funds be used exclusively for “public safety or law enforcement initiatives.” 

Funds from the tickets in Bibb County have been used to pay for a truancy specialist, campus police officers and crossing guards for the Bibb County School District, but also equipment for law enforcement, such as radios and Flock cloud-connected cameras.

Under the new bill, ticket costs would be decreased from $100 to $75 for the first violation and from $150 to $125 for subsequent violations. 

The legislation awaits final approval from Gov. Brian Kemp, who has until May 12 to sign them into law.