APD gives drivers two-week ‘grace period’ before issuing school zone speeding tickets

ALBANY – The return of public school students to the classroom means that the speed cameras located near several elementary schools and all Dougherty County School System high school campuses in Albany are back in action.

That holds true for other area school systems when classes begin.

In Albany, drivers will get a two-week “grace period” during which only warnings will be mailed to the owners of cars captured on camera traveling 11 miles or more over the speed limit at one of the nine schools.

One reminder for drivers is that the cameras are active for the hour before and after school begins, with the speed limit of 25 miles per hour. But they are also active during the rest of the day for the posted speed limit at the camera locations.

That means that if a driver is in a 45 mph zone, the cameras will record violations for cars traveling 56 miles per hour or greater.

The cameras have not been without controversy, with individuals caught speeding lodging complaints with police and elected officials. One of the biggest complaints has been from drivers who were unaware the cameras are on throughout the school day, not just the hour of the day when school is beginning and ending, Albany Police Department officer Dillard Glover said.

Another was that there are no flashing lights on North Slappey Boulevard for the camera positioned adjacent to Northside Elementary School.

That has been addressed for this school year with the Georgia Department of Transportation granting permission to add flashing caution lights notifying drivers of the school zone, Glover said. Because the location is on a state highway, it required approval at the state level.

“That was the big complaint: ‘Well, there’s no flashing lights and there’s a big truck in this lane and I didn’t see the sign,’” he said. “We worked for two years on that before we got a letter saying we could do it.

“It (school zones) is enforced all day,” Glover said. “If people slow down and be mindful and remember the faster you drive the longer it takes you to stop. Nobody wants to have a wreck.”

The motivation to install cameras came after a driver struck two children on Mock Road in a school zone, the corporal said. One of those children was killed, and the other was seriously injured.

The cameras have caught one driver traveling at 101 miles per hour in a 45 zone on Oakridge Drive. Drivers have been caught on the cameras well into the 60s and 70s in the 35-miles-per-hour zone on North Slappey Boulevard, Glover said.

“The whole purpose of this program is ensuring the safety for the students, folks bringing their kids, for buses, for people going to work,” Glover said.

Violators are fined $80 for a first offense and $135 for all subsequent offenses. The violations recorded by the cameras are civil violations and do not impact driver’s licenses, which is not the case for criminal violations issued by police officers.

Other than Slappey Boulevard, the cameras are located near:

— Lincoln Elementary School on Monroe Street

— Sherwood Elementary School on Whispering Pines Road

— Robert Harvey Elementary School on Blaylock Street

— Morningside Elementary School on East Oakridge Drive

— Alice Coachman Elementary School on West Oakridge Drive

— Dougherty High School on Oglethorpe Boulevard

— Monroe High School on Newton Road

— Westover High School on North Westover Boulevard

There was an effort during the 2025 Georgia General Assembly session to change the laws governing school-zone cameras or to do away with them outright, but those measures failed. They will again be discussed during the 2026 General Assembly.