Politics & Government

Speed Detection Cameras Approved For Alpharetta School Zones

The Alpharetta Department of Public Safety said it receives complaints daily regarding speeding in the city's nine school zones.

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Alpharetta approved automated speed detection cameras near schools.
Alpharetta approved automated speed detection cameras near schools. (Maggie Avants/Patch)

ALPHARETTA, GA — To better monitor and enforce school zone speeds, the Alpharetta City Council approved the implementation and installation of School Zone Speed Detection Camera systems in the city's nine school zones.

The Department of Public Safety said it receives complaints daily regarding speeding in school zones. Providing enforcement capabilities at each of the nine schools in the City is extremely manpower and resource intensive, Director of Public Safety John Robison said at the Aug. 19 council meeting.

During the 2017-18 legislative session, The Georgia General Assembly passed HB 978, which has been signed into law, allowing the use of photo/video enforcement in school zones under State Statutes 40-6-163 and 40-14-18. The law also set requirements for local legislation, school board endorsement, state permitting, execution, and the implementation of camera enforcement, Robison said.

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"With this legislative change in mind, the Department of Public Safety proposed to address the constant school zone speeding complaints in nine school zones by using technology versus manpower with the objectives to increase student safety, change driver behavior and reduce complaints," he said. "Some expected benefits of using currently available technology include: a constant enforcement presence in school zones, traffic data collection, Automated License Plate Reading (ALPR) capabilities and the enforcement system is completely violator funded. The vendor company will incur all equipment installation, calibration, and maintenance costs as well as all costs associated with collecting and distribution of fines."

This year, a study was conducted by a vendor which showed that on one day there were over 3,557 speeding violations in six school zones during a 9-10-hour period (violations were not measured in all locations or directions of travel), Robison said. These violations were at least 11 MPH over the posted speed limit.

With this data and the desire to improve school zone safety, Public Safety staff, in conjunction with Finance staff, prepared RFP 20-103 and advertised in June 2019. Proposals were received on June 20 and consisted of three responses which were submitted to the Evaluation Committee for review and ranking. This Committee consisted of Public Safety personnel.

The Evaluation Committee met on June 24 to tabulate the overall scores. Each proposal was evaluated based on the following criteria: Timeline (37 percent); Features (30 percent) Experience/References (30 percent); and Local Vendor preference (3 percent).

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The resulting scores were as follows (ranking of “1” to “5” with “5” being the highest):
  • RedSpeed: 4.37
  • Sensys America: 3.44
  • Verra Mobility: 3.24

Reference checks were conducted on RedSpeed and substantiated what the Evaluation Committee found through their proposal review. As set forth in the RFP, this program is to be 100 percent violator funded, Robison said. The original fine was set at $25, but council approved it at $10.

All proposals were competitive from a revenue sharing standpoint with RedSpeed providing the City with 67 percent (with no ALPR technology) to 65 percent (with ALPR Technology) of each paid citation. These funds will be used exclusively for Public Safety activities.

The motion was approved with Council Member Ben Burnett voting in opposition.

The Roswell City Council also approved an agreement Aug. 12 with RedSpeed to install automated speed detection cameras in select school zones within the city.

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