Alpharetta speed cameras online to keep students safe during school year

The start of the school year has drivers paying closer attention to roadside speed enforcement cameras in school zones.

In Alpharetta, police say their cameras are focused strictly on keeping students safe, not to catch speeding drivers throughout the day.

"These are here for the safety of our children and for education of our drivers and our citizens," said Alpharetta Police Captain Jakai Braithwaite. "We want them to slow down. That's the most important thing. These things are not here to build revenue for the City of Alpharetta or the police department."

Many of the cameras are mounted near schools along the roughly five-mile stretch of Webb Bridge Road.

They are designed to automatically detect and photograph cars speeding through school zones while students are arriving or leaving.

Braithwaite said outside of designated school-zone hours, the cameras do not enforce the school-zone speed limit at other times of day.

It differs for each municipality, though.

Braithwaite also said the third-party camera system has been used since 2019 and has reduced speeding.

"When we first started this years ago, obviously the numbers were through the roof, but these are absolutely working because our repeat offenders are minimal."

The school-zone-enforced speed limits run from an hour before and after school during the school year.