ATLANTA — A new bill in the General Assembly could ban all those school zone speeding cameras across the state of Georgia.
This push comes after hundreds of complaints of unfair tickets, but some Georgia cities say they need those cameras to keep children safe.
Macon Republican Dale Washburn pulled no punches when explaining why he wanted to abolish every school zone speeding camera in Georgia.
“It is clear that this system is abusive,” Washburn said.
He thinks some cities and some companies are abusing them to raise money and in some cases -- a lot of money.
“When we see the deceit and trickery involved in this, the design is not for children’s safety. The design is to write tickets and rake in revenue,” Washburn said.
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He pointed out that one small town in North Georgia with a $400,000 yearly budget raised more than $1 million just from one school zone camera.
But while the idea has widespread support, some cities are pushing back.
Washburn conceded that the city of Decatur was using the cameras correctly to promote safety and Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot that unilaterally abolishing them would hurt that.
“If guardrails are needed, then that’s the way to go rather than, as one of the committee members said, burn down the barn to get rid of the weeds,” Garrett said.
Former director of the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety Bob Dallas now represents one of the camera companies.
He agrees that putting limits on the cameras is better than abolishing them.
“It makes the school zones less safe. It makes our community centers we call schools where our kids, parents, administrators, teachers, crossing guards all come to less safe. We want them to be safe,” Dallas said.
The bill passed out of that committee so it could go to the full house for a vote very soon.
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