Tampa Targets School Zone Camera Revenue

Ryan, Dana, and Chris Trenkmann discuss a Tampa proposal to dedicate the city’s share of school zone speed camera fines toward safety improvements around schools and how the revenue from citations is currently used.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Ryan Gorman Show Podcast presented by Farah and Farah,
accident attorneys from Tampa.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, what do we got going on for today's
top stories?

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Well, Tampa City Council discussing a plan on how to
spend the city's share of the school zone speed camera fines.
They want to move it to be spent exclusively on
safety improvements around schools. So the idea is to have
a city attorney draft in ordinance that would dedicate the
revenue to mobility and safety infrastructure, which is designed to

(00:32):
deter speeding in school zones. So these cameras obviously are
set up for safety purposes and they generate a ton
of revenues they do, so the question is how should
they be spending it, And that was what the city
council wanted to review.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, they wanted to be spent exclusively on safety improvements
around schools, so like raised crosswalks, sidewalked improvements, narrow lanes,
flashing pedestrian lights, you see all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
And what I thought was interesting there were a couple
of things.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
So the city gets about sixty bucks out of every
one hundred dollars camera citation. That's that's a better deal
than in Miami Dade. We've talked about this before with
their school bus cameras bus patrol they get sixty percent
of the revenue and the county only gets forty percent.

(01:26):
And the company behind the speed zone cameras here in
Tampa they put the cameras in place without charging the
city as well, like bus patrols are, Well, we put
the cameras on all the school buses. So that was
kind of their argument for getting a larger share. Well,
you know, they make that back in like a week. Yeah, exactly.

(01:47):
It's the same set up here, and we're getting a
much better split, the opposite kind of split. Do you
care where that money ends up being spent? Do you
think it needs to be spent specifically on like those
kind of school zone safety improvements.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
The city's revenue from these cameras.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Well, I think maybe the concern here is that it
doesn't get shifted into other areas not school related.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
I wouldn't want them to be spending the money on
more cameras, right, right, right, especially if you have the
vendor paying for that sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well, Bill Carlson, who was kind of leading the way
on this, change. His goal is essentially to use the
revenue from the cameras to end the school zone safety problem,
which is a noble goal. I don't think you're ever
going to be able to completely secure school zone. Some
people are just going to speed right through them. How

(02:43):
safety in it is the school zone where your.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
Kid goes I think they've done a lot actually over
the last couple of years. The crosswalks. There's a lot
of crossing guards that are there all the time. They've
obviously got cameras. I think spending the money on the
school zone safety, if improvement need to be made, if
there's room for it, is good. And then I just
think using the money for schools in general is a
good idea. Doesn't all have to be about safety.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, how about the school zones where your kids go
to school?

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Chris Well, I would say that, you know, overall, I
think schools in Pulk do a pretty good job as
far as you know, the safety there. I wouldn't have
any problem with them trying to make that, you know, better,
even better. Yeah, I mean there's no question that the
whole thing of like you know, these long car lines,
lots of traffic and certain areas being in you know

(03:34):
high you know, rush hour type periods of time can
create problems, There's no doubt about it. So you would
want that to be improved. But is that the only
thing that that the money should be spent for. I
think I look at you know, Dana's perspective and say, hey,
look that's good if you if you've solved the problem,
does it have to be spent on that? I mean,
can you be in a situation where you could use
the money for other for other uses. I think they

(03:56):
should have the freedom to do that. What I don't
want to see though, is like the Florida Lottery thing,
right where they get all this money from these cameras
and then they just start spending it on other things
that don't improve schools, schools in general.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
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