Nobody is pro-speeding through a school zone. Well, during the summer, I am. Nobody is pro-kids being hit. Now I did a few analyses. One, of pedestrians and when they were hit, as the league of women voters asked about at the debates. Are there actually a pandemic of children dying from school speeders?
“A visible deterrent changes behavior in the moment.
Source-grounded facts to build around
At the forum, the speed-camera question was framed around 50,000+ tickets and close to $5 million in fines, and your answer was the cleanest contrast: get rid of the current setup and use an unmanned police car because it is cheaper and just as effective. Ausley backed the program if it keeps kids safe; Matlow focused on hours and road redesign; Parks wanted more details and said the hours were a problem.
Florida law allows these school-zone speed detection systems for vehicles going more than 10 mph over the school-zone or posted speed limit during defined school-session windows, including breakfast/start/end periods and during the school session itself.
The $100 fine is not magic safety dust. It is a revenue split. Under the statute, $20 goes to state General Revenue, $60 is retained by the city or county for administering speed detection systems and other public-safety initiatives, $3 goes to FDLE’s Criminal Justice Standards and Training Trust Fund, $12 goes to the county school district for security, transportation, or safer walking conditions, and $5 is retained for school crossing guard recruitment and retention. Charter schools receive a proportional share from the school-district portion; private and homeschool families do not receive a comparable direct benefit.
So, using the rough $5 million figure: about $1 million would go to state General Revenue, $3 million to the city bucket, $150,000 to FDLE, $600,000 to the school-district/charter-school bucket, and $250,000 to crossing guard recruitment and retention. That is before we know the vendor’s exact take, which should be published plainly through the city contract and invoices. The public deserves to see gross revenue, vendor payments, city net revenue, and school-zone safety results side by side.
And the pressure is real. If someone does not pay or contest within the notice window, the process can escalate to a uniform traffic citation; broader Florida traffic-infraction law allows driver-license suspension when civil penalties are not handled on time. That is why “just pay the $100” is not a neutral sentence for working people who need a license to keep their job.”
Let me say that first, because politics loves fake choices. The choice is not “cameras or dead children.” That is lazy. The real question is whether Tallahassee built a safety program, or whether we built a revenue system with a safety slogan taped to the front.
At the recent mayoral forum, we were told Tallahassee school-zone speed cameras have issued more than 50,000 tickets and generated close to $5 million in fines. That is not a tiny pilot program anymore. That is a major enforcement machine.
My answer was simple: I would get rid of the current setup and use visible deterrence instead, including unmanned police cars where appropriate. People slow down when they see a police car. They slow down before they enter the danger zone. That is the point.
A camera ticket arrives later. The danger already happened.
That is the difference between prevention and billing.
The current system may technically be legal. That does not make it good government. A $100 ticket is easy for some people to shrug off. For others, it is groceries, gas, a utility bill, or a missed payment. Most people do not fight it. They do not have time. They do not know the process. They do not want to risk extra fees. They just pay the $100 and move on.
That is exactly why these systems make money.
Good businesses make money by serving customers well. Bad systems make money because people are trapped, confused, busy, or scared of what happens if they do not pay. Government should not act like a bad business.
And parents are not all living the same neat little school-zone life that policy people imagine.
Some parents are picking up one kid from a public school and another from a charter school. Some are driving across town for private school. Some homeschool and still have to pass through school zones during the day. Some are grandparents, stepparents, foster parents, workers, delivery drivers, contractors, or caregivers. A lot of Tallahassee families do not fit into one clean government box.
Yet the fine hits the driver the same way.
The money does not simply go “to the kids.” Florida law splits the $100 fine several ways. Part goes to the state. Part goes to the city. Part goes to FDLE. Part goes to the school district, with charter schools receiving a proportional share. Part goes to crossing guard recruitment and retention.
Some of that sounds good. I support school safety. I support crossing guards. I support safer walking conditions. But if the program is really about safety, then prove it with safety numbers, not revenue numbers.
Show us whether speeds are dropping.
Show us whether repeat violations are dropping.
Show us whether crashes, near misses, and dangerous conditions are improving.
Show us which locations are getting the most tickets and whether those locations are being redesigned.
Show us the vendor contract.
Show us the invoices.
Show us the city’s gross revenue, vendor costs, net revenue, and exactly where the money went.
Because if the program is succeeding, the number of tickets should go down. If the number of tickets keeps going up and the city celebrates the money, then that is not a safety program. That is a ticket trap with better branding.
My approach is different.
Use visible deterrence first. Put an unmanned police vehicle where drivers need to slow down. Use speed-feedback signs. Use flashing lights that match the enforcement window. Paint the street better. Improve crossings. Use cones, curb changes, and design that makes people naturally slow down. Put the warning where the behavior happens, not in someone’s mailbox two weeks later.
A visible police car changes behavior immediately. A camera creates a bill.
I want the city to design for compliance, not collections.
That matters because the punishment system can escalate. For a working parent, contractor, caregiver, or employee, losing the ability to drive is not a minor inconvenience. In Florida, driving is often the difference between having a job and losing one. Government should be very careful before turning a confusing school-zone enforcement system into a financial threat hanging over someone’s livelihood.
So yes, slow people down.
Yes, protect kids.
Yes, enforce school zones.
But do it in a way that treats residents like people, not revenue units.
My standard is simple: if the goal is safety, the city should be thrilled when ticket revenue collapses.
That is how we know it worked.