City council voted Tuesday to add the school zone cameras to its stoplight enforcement program.
Revenue generated will go toward pedestrian safety improvements, such as adding more sidewalks. The initiative is in-line with speed zone camera legislation on the governor’s desk.
The cameras could begin to pop up as early as July. Drivers going 10 mph or more over the speed limit will face $100 fines. Virginia Beach police did not say where cameras would first be installed.
Stoplight enforcement, dubbed the PHOTOSafe program, first appeared in 2004 and has been operating consistently since 2009. Running a red light at the 11 intersections the city monitors results in a $50 fine.
The frequency of crashes at those intersections has decreased by as much as 70% since 2016, said Deputy Chief Billy Zelms in a February presentation to the city council. Zelms oversees the Support division, which includes the PHOTOSafe program.
Zelms said speed cameras could also reduce crashes, citing an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study that shows they slow drivers down.
Virginia Beach’s contract with a stoplight camera vendor is up, providing an opportunity for the city to add speed zone cameras to a new contract.
The stoplight program costs about $1 million and generates $1.8 million annually. A new contract is expected to raise program costs to $1.8 million. With stoplight cameras alone, the city would break even, or potentially have to supplement the program as costs rise.
School zone cameras will cost up to $3,900 per camera each month, Zelms said, but the city is expected to generate revenue from the program.
Zelms said Norfolk had 4,500 violations per day in school zones when the city initially tested the cameras.
Five localities in Hampton Roads have made money from the cameras including Norfolk, Chesapeake, Hampton and York County. Suffolk has cameras in school areas and construction work zones and made $12.5 million last year. Chesapeake made $6.6 million and Norfolk made $4.2 million.
Several council members said neighborhood traffic safety is a top concern they hear from constituents.
“When I was younger, I used to hate these things,” Councilmember Micheal Berlucchi said in February. “And now, it’s pretty simple: don’t speed through a neighborhood, don’t speed through construction and don’t speed through school zones.”
“To me, this has nothing to do with revenue. It has to do with traffic safety,” he said.
One person spoke Tuesday against the vote. Tim Anderson, a Virginia Beach attorney and former House delegate, said the cameras don’t stop speeding.
Anderson filed lawsuits in Chesapeake and Suffolk last year, arguing the cities improperly issued speeding violations and allowed third-party vendors to impersonate local governments. He called the speed cameras a “profit policing model.” The Suffolk lawsuit was dismissed in the fall.
“The city will benefit millions of dollars by putting these cameras in on the backs of Virginia Beach residents and tourists,” he said. “Don’t open Pandora’s Box.”
The council unanimously approved the cameras.
The Virginia Beach vote came after a bill regulating the cameras sponsored by Sen. Angelia Williams Graves, D-Norfolk, cleared the General Assembly.
The bill before the governor confines cameras to areas such as school and construction zones, and dangerous intersections. It would also prevent vendors of the cameras from profiting off citations and require cities to use revenue to improve pedestrian safety.
After the General Assembly first approved the camera usage in 2020, cities were not limited in how they could use the millions generated by the cameras.
Council may consider adding construction zone cameras.
