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Lawrenceville installs school-zone speed cameras

By Christopher King
Published  August 1, 2022 11:04pm EDT
Lawrenceville
FOX 5 Atlanta

Lawrenceville police to use speeding cameras in schools zones

The School Zone Speed Camera Program will be activated soon by the Lawrenceville Police Department, but they won't be watching all the time.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Speeders beware. Lawrenceville police will soon start cracking down on drivers going too fast in schools zones. They put up cameras around six schools in the city to make it safer for students to cross the street.

Police on Wednesday will launch the School Zone Speed Camera Program. The automated cameras will operate for one hour before school begins to an hour after the opening bell, the same for the afternoon, an hour before school ends to an hour after school ends.

Lawrenceville installed cameras around Benefield Elementary School, Central Gwinnett High School, Discovery High School, Lawrenceville Elementary School, Oakland Meadow School, and Winn Holt Elementary School.

"We’re focusing strictly on when school is in-session and those times before and after school," says Captain Brad Grove with the Lawrenceville Police Department.

Drivers who go 11 miles over the limit will get a ticket.

"We think it’s going to have a great impact on reducing speed," Grove says. "What we’re trying to do is increase the safety for our children."

Bryan Hunter’s son starts the 10th grade this fall at Central Gwinnett.

"Absolutely a good idea," Hunter says. He believes the plan to turn on speed cameras outside –his son’s school will a good way to get drivers slow down. "It would make things safer. People wouldn’t feel like they could go speeding there with impunity.

Lawrenceville is the latest Gwinnett city to put speed-detection cameras in school zones. Norcross, Duluth, Snellville and Lilburn have similar systems in place.

Some drivers worry if the cameras will still flag down cars outside school hours. "They will not get a ticket outside of school hours," Grove says.

FOX 5 asked Grove what police will do to ensure drivers don’t get ticketed when they’re not supposed to. "Any citation that comes through will come through a sworn officer that’s verified, certified, and then served" Grove responded.

The city is giving a 30-day warning period, starting Wednesday and ending September 5. They’ll slap drivers with a $100 fine for the first offense and $125 for the second.