8,313 tickets written through April 15 were for correct times
The speed cameras on the roads leading to Oglethorpe County schools are effective at reducing speeding and work as intended, according to six months of data from Blue Line Solutions.
The cameras identified 12,000 speeders from the time they were initially turned on in October to the afternoon of April 15. Of those, 8,313 came after the cameras began recording data and writing tickets on Nov. 9.
Oglethorpe County Sheriff David Gabriel said this has led to an increase in safety for students and drivers, especially on Highway 78 at Oglethorpe County High School.
“I don’t think we’ve had an accident there in almost three months,” he said. “We were averaging one to two accidents a day there. I mean, it was almost daily we had accidents, it seemed like.”
Speed concerns near county schools was the original reason for the installation of the automated cameras.
“There were tons of people actually speeding through the school zones,” Oglethorpe County School System Director of Operations Paul Thiel said, “and that has dropped significantly since they put them in there. We don’t want people speeding in school zones because speeding makes students less safe.”
Last May, Blue Line Solutions and the Sheriff’s Office installed three speed cameras on Highway 78 in front of OCHS and two on Comer Road near Oglethorpe County Primary, Elementary and Middle schools.
The cameras were activated Oct. 9 and began recording data for speeding tickets during school hours on Nov. 9. Speeders caught by the cameras between those dates were sent warning notices, not tickets.
Tickets began being mailed after that date.
Speeders caught by the cameras are charged $100 for their first offense and $150 for each ensuing violation. Blue Line Solutions receives 25% of each ticket plus $10.
The rest goes to an account set up for use by the Sheriff’s Office, but administered by the county, Commission Chair Jay Paul said.
A document from Blue Line Solutions to the Sheriff’s Office and provided to The Echo states Blue Line Solutions takes 35% of each ticket, with no additional flat fee.
With 8,313 tickets that means the Sheriff’s Office has earned at least $540,345, and Blue Line Solutions has made at least $290,955.
According to the Sheriff, the money his office receives from the school zone tickets “has to be used for public safety initiatives.”
These include software purchased to allow 911 operators to direct callers through CPR and license plate readers at the schools to watch for “somebody who’s not supposed to be on the property.”
Gabriel said those projects would have been delayed without the school zone speed cameras.
“We’re not using any SPLOST money,” he said. “If we had to wait to use SPLOST money, this stuff would have been several years down the line.”
Gabriel said he’s seen complaints about the cameras not working properly, but he has never seen a ticket written from the cameras at an incorrect time.
“People say that they had tickets outside the time,” he said. “When I call the company and get a copy of the ticket, their Saturday at 2 in the afternoon was Wednesday at 11 in the morning.”
The data requested and received by The Echo confirmed the cameras did not ticket speeders outside the enforcement times of 6:45 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Highway 78 and 6:45 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Comer Road.
The data also showed no tickets were given on days when school was not in session, nor for speeds less than 11 mph over the speed limit.
However, appeals against the tickets are being filed, Oglethorpe County Chief Magistrate Judge Megan Coile said.
Drivers who want to appeal tickets from the school zone cameras begin by filling out paperwork online with Blue Line Solutions, Coile said. She said the company then fills out a court docket and sends her 50 appeals once a month.
Coile said she indicates on the paperwork if the driver was or was not liable, was dismissed or failed to appear for their court date.
However, she made it clear her selection doesn’t decide the result of appeals.
“We only check a box,” she said. “I’m not going to call it a ruling. I’m not going to call it anything other than checking a box. I check the box for the paperwork they send me, and I email it back to them. I don’t make any notes on the cases. I don’t make any copies of anything they bring in.”
Coile declined to estimate how many of the 50 appeals are checked “not liable” and also declined to share what it takes to have that box checked.
When asked to provide records of the appeals, Blue Line Solutions Director of Agency Operations Melissa Parsons said via email: “Currently, all appeals would go through the court, and we don’t always get notified of that.”
Coile added that her office was “not prepared” to begin seeing the appeals.
Traffic tickets are typically seen by Probate Judge Kayla Grier, but speed camera tickets are civil cases between Blue Line Solutions and the driver, so Coile must oversee them.
“This was not something that we were given notice of when the process started,” she said. “Nothing was budgeted or time worked out for separate court dates or anything like that.”
Coile asked Oglethorpe County residents to remember that her court has a minimal role in the process of school zone camera tickets being written and appeals.
“We get a lot of calls thinking we can just automatically fix this stuff,” she said. “Our court can not do that. We don’t accept the paper, we don’t have any control over the docket sheet, we don’t have any control over whether or not the camera system spits out tickets. We don’t do anything for that company.”