This is where the future is heading when we leave the police work up to big brother and AI.
Innocent drivers in Atlanta were improperly issued $75 tickets for speeding through a school zone at times when flashing yellow lights, used to indicate a revised speed limit during school hours, were not flashing.
FOX affiliate WAGA-TV reports that once school is dismissed and the orange lights cease flashing, the speed limit increases to 35 miles per hour, from the revised limit of 25 miles per hour.
According to follow up reporting from The Sun, Atlanta Public Schools acknowledged that cameras were mistakenly issuing tickets to drivers after hours when the orange lights were off.
As a result, drivers who received these citations, numbering nearly 4,500 since November 2023, will be refunded. The issue led to the issuance of hundreds of thousands of dollars in incorrect fines over a period of six months.
Reporters inquired why cameras weren't deactivated after hours but received no direct response. Ivan DeQuesada was fined $75 for speeding—39 mph in a 25 mph zone at nearly 5 p.m. on a Friday, despite inactive flashing lights, the report says.
He said: "I thought about what was happening that day. I remembered what I was doing, and then I thought, ‘Man, I don’t remember that school zone light being on."
"So I asked my neighbors, and then I was shocked to find out that several neighbors also got tickets, and they were kind of unexpected for the same reasons," he continued.
His neighbor, James Murphy, called it out as a potential money grab: "They shouldn't be raking in money from dozens of cars driving down the road when there's no light blinking."
"It really just seems like a way to try to bring in money, rather than actually increase safety," he concluded.
