Garden City police shut off school zone speed cameras, shift to officers with radar and lidar

While the cameras remain in place, they are no longer issuing citations.

GARDEN CITY, Ga. —

Drivers in Garden City will no longer receive tickets from school zone speed cameras.

After three years of automated enforcement, the Garden City Police Department has officially ended its school zone speed camera program, citing years of changing state legislation that officials say made the program too difficult to maintain.

While the cameras remain in place, they are no longer issuing citations. Instead, police say officers will once again be stationed in school zones using radar and lidar to enforce speed limits.

“We’ll have officers physically present out there conducting speed enforcement utilizing lidar and radar, and conducting enforcement for violators,” said Lt. Shane Glasco with the Garden City Police Department.

Why Garden City ended the program

Police say the decision was driven by repeated legislative changes surrounding school zone camera enforcement in Georgia, not just the latest law.

“If this is constantly something that’s going to be in flux, that creates a significant amount of work for the agency,” Lt. Glasco said.

The latest change came with House Bill 651, which took effect July 1. The law adds stricter oversight requirements for school zone camera programs and, in many cases, will require local governments to receive voter approval before entering into or renewing camera enforcement contracts.

However, Garden City police say the new law was simply the latest in a series of changes that led them to reconsider whether the program was worth continuing.

“It just was a matter of, okay, is this something that we want to continue investing our time and energy in, or are there other things that we could be focused on?” Lt. Glasco said.

Speed enforcement will continue

Although the automated cameras have been shut off, Garden City police stress that school zone enforcement is not going away.

Instead of relying on cameras, officers will be physically present during both morning drop-off and afternoon dismissal to monitor traffic and stop speeding drivers.

Police say motorists who exceed the speed limit in active school zones can still expect to be pulled over and cited.

The department says its goal remains the same: protecting students and encouraging drivers to slow down as children travel to and from school.