Georgia lawmakers push to ban automated speed cameras near schools

Traffic passes an automated speed camera outside Beacon Hill Middle School in Decatur, Ga., on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

Virginia Mayo / AP

This story was updated on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, at 6:30 p.m.

Outside Beacon Hill Middle School in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, like along hundreds of roadsides across Georgia, the unblinking eye of a camera tickets drivers who speed through a school zone.

Supporters say cameras slow down drivers and provide constant enforcement that understaffed police departments can’t equal. But some state lawmakers want to ban them, saying the cameras are more about generating money for local governments and camera companies, and that some use them deceptively.