My daughter received a $100 school zone speeding citation just six days after she got her driver’s license. She was traveling 29 miles per hour on SW 124th Street in Pinecrest — below the normal posted limit of 35 — at 4:17 PM, an hour and twelve minutes after Palmetto Elementary School had dismissed for the day. That ticket sent me down a rabbit hole. What I found there should concern every Pinecrest resident, and frankly every Florida driver.
School zone speed camera programs are spreading across the state like wildfire. Municipalities are signing contracts with private vendors, cameras are going up, and $100 citations are arriving in mailboxes — often under circumstances that would surprise the people receiving them. Before your community adopts one of these programs, or before you assume the one already in place is operating as the law intended, there are some things worth knowing.
The vendor has a financial stake in the outcome. Programs like Pinecrest’s are sold to municipalities by private companies — in this case, a firm called RedSpeed — who conduct the traffic studies used to justify implementation. In Pinecrest, that study counted anything 1 mph over the speed limit as a violation to establish a baseline speeding problem. The numbers purport to show a dramatic “speeding problem,” but once the cameras are installed, they can only issue citations for speeds exceeding the limit by more than 10 mph. The same company that defined the problem also profits from the solution while claiming credit for reductions in speeding that are impossible to independently verify. That conflict deserves scrutiny before any municipality signs a contract.
These cameras enforce more than you think. Most drivers assume school zone cameras operate only during the reduced speed limit periods — the 30-minute windows before and after arrival and dismissal. In fact, Florida law allows cameras to enforce the regular speed limit during the entirety of the school day. You can be cited at a time when no children are present, no crossing guards are posted, and the street looks exactly like a normal road — because legally, it still falls within the school day.
Some enforcement windows exceed what the statute allows. Florida Statute 316.1896 ties enforcement to “a regularly scheduled school session” — singular. In Pinecrest, the zones surrounding Palmetto Elementary and Palmetto Middle School have been merged into a single, larger enforcement area with a combined window that stretches well beyond what either school’s schedule would individually authorize. Citations have been issued long after all pedestrian activity has ended, crossing guards have gone home, and the streets are empty. My own footage, taken during the enforcement window on a normal school day, shows exactly that. For the record, 30 minutes before and after dismissal — as the statute provides — is more than sufficient. The real world confirms it.
The flashing lights will mislead you. Everyone agrees that the absence of flashing yellow lights is not a legal defense against a school zone citation. But on SW 124th Street, the lights do operate during part of the enforcement window — and then turn off before enforcement ends. If you drive that street regularly and the lights are flashing, then five minutes later they are not, the only reasonable conclusion is that enforcement has ended. It hasn’t. That is a confusing and deceptive signal to send to drivers who are acting in good faith.
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When problems are identified, the response has been to retroactively rewrite the rules. After citations like my daughter’s were challenged, the Village of Pinecrest passed an amended ordinance formally creating a “Joint School Zone” framework — legal structure that did not exist when those citations were issued. The ordinance was explicitly made retroactive to January 9, 2024. That is not clarification. That is correction after the fact, designed to protect revenue rather than refund the residents who were cited under a framework that lacked proper legal authority.
I support school zone enforcement. Every reasonable person does. But enforcement must be accurate, transparent, and grounded in the law as written — not as later revised. As these programs spread across Florida, residents and local officials owe it to themselves to look closely at what they are actually authorizing, who benefits financially, and whether the implementation matches the intent of the statute.
In my own case, the hearing officer was receptive and gave me full opportunity to present my argument and supporting documentation. Before a ruling could be issued, however, the Pinecrest Police officer present offered to dismiss the citation. Personally satisfying — but more significant is what it avoided: a ruling on the merits that might have established precedent. Sometimes winning means knowing why the other side didn’t want to lose.
The cameras are watching. Someone should be watching the cameras.
Henry Gomez is an award-winning advertising strategy executive and longtime South Florida resident. He became interested in school zone camera enforcement after his daughter received a citation he believed to be improper, deciding to dig into the details of how these programs actually work.
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