I-Team: Thousands ticketed by school zone cameras set up further from the school than law allows

ATLANTA - Atlanta schools start back next week, but the FOX 5 I-Team has already found more school zone cameras that may be ticketing drivers unfairly.

The I-Team's continuing investigation into automated traffic cameras found two in southwest Atlanta set up two streets away from an elementary school, which is located at the end of a dead-end road. Yet, the cameras still hand out tickets, with thousands of people cited for speeding through a school zone.

"I don't know how they could have got this wrong," said Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr., who has a law office nearby and received two tickets in the mail. "I do not believe it is a legal school zone."

Still, you may want to tap your brakes in the Ben Hill area of Fairburn Road. FOX 5 took the issue to city officials and Atlanta Public Schools, and they’re not budging.

"The school zone is an approved location, and the speed enforcement system received a permit for installation," a spokesman for Atlanta’s Department of Transportation said in an email. "Therefore, tickets issued through the camera system for exceeding the speed limit would be valid."

During the past school year, the I-Team found problems with automated ticketing systems in other areas of metro Atlanta, including school zone lights flashing off schedule and mis-programmed camera timers, causing thousands of motorists to receive citations they didn’t deserve. Those investigations led the cities of Atlanta, Riverdale and Jonesboro to issue hundreds of thousands of dollars in refunds.

This time, the problem is location

State law defines a school zone as "the area within 1,000 feet of the boundary of any public or private elementary or secondary school."

But one camera in R.N. Fickett Elementary's school zone stands more than 2,000 feet from the school parking lot. The other camera is more than 1,600 feet away.

Set up by Atlanta Public Schools contractor Verra Mobility, the cameras and speed detectors have been issuing violations since September. Data reviewed by the I-Team, current through mid-April, shows 5,935 citations there.

Because the data doesn’t include names of vehicle owners, the I-Team can’t determine an exact dollar amount of the fines, and many tickets could have been dismissed in court or never paid. But with Atlanta tickets costing $75 for a first offense and $125 for a second or more, the total amount of fines levied in the Fickett school zone likely ranges from roughly $525,000 to $675,000.

In February, the cameras may have finally tagged the wrong person – a former Atlanta police officer and adjunct criminal justice professor at Clark Atlanta University. The camera aimed at southbound traffic caught Walter Calloway going 39 miles per hour, mailing him a citation for speeding in a 25 mile-per-hour school zone.

"I actually drove back over here," Calloway said. "I said, ‘It’s too far.’ I said, ‘The school safety zone is not that wide.’ They cast a big net for a school safety zone."

Calloway said he read state law and Georgia Department of Transportation permitting rules, then used Google Maps to measure distances.

He took his evidence to Atlanta Municipal Court, where a city prosecutor didn’t dispute him, and Chief Judge Christopher T. Portis threw out his ticket.

"I’ll grant the dismissal," Judge Portis told him in the hearing. "But that only resolves it for your case. Because I’m trying to figure out generally what’s going on with this particular zone."

Is the school zone legal? 

The I-Team sent written questions to the school system and the camera contractor, asking how the tickets can be legally valid, but didn’t receive a comprehensive answer.

Verra Mobility declined to comment, and a school system spokesman responded by praising the cameras for protecting students, parents, employees and visitors.

"Regarding your questions about the cameras in the Fickett Elementary zone," the emailed response said, "the locations for the placement of both cameras were approved by Atlanta DOT and Georgia DOT.

How did that happen? Georgia DOT explained by email that Fairburn Road isn't a state road, so when the state approved the camera permit, it accepted the city's word that the cameras followed state law. That official certification was signed by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.

Atlanta's transportation department told the I-Team the school zone on Fairburn Road has been there for decades, essentially grandfathered in, before a 2018 law set school zones at no more than 1,000 feet from a school boundary.

But trial attorney and former Georgia State Bar president Lester Tate said that argument doesn’t justify automated ticketing. The 2018 law Atlanta DOT cited was actually passed in the same bill that legalized school zone cameras.

"It’s an admission," Tate said. "Not a justification."

Tate said the speed zone itself isn’t the biggest issue, but rather the automatic tickets. So it’s the current law governing speed cameras that matters.

"They clearly know that the speed detection device statute, enacted in 2018, requires that the school zone be within a thousand feet of the boundaries of the school," he said.

"They have to do right"

Earlier this year, the cameras may have targeted another wrong person. Commissioner Arrington said he’s fighting his tickets in court, too.

"I think the City of Atlanta and Atlanta Public Schools and whoever was involved with the installation," Arrington said, "should lead the way and step up, admit their mistake, and reimburse any individuals that received a ticket during this time."

If they won’t do that, Tate said drivers could fight their tickets individually, or ask a Superior Court judge to order the cameras taken down, or file a class action lawsuit. A big problem though, with the fines set so low, it's easier to just pay, he said. Tate said this may be a case where it's tough to fight City Hall.

Calloway, the criminal justice professor, has another ticket to dispute in court – a second citation he picked up in May for going 37 miles per hour in the Fickett Elementary zone.

"School safety zones are needed, but they have to be rightfully placed," Calloway said. "They have to do right by the citizens that drive through here."