Starting Tuesday, Aug. 11, the first day of school for Polk County students, Lakeland's 14 automated school-zone speed cameras stop mailing warnings and start mailing $100 citations. The cameras sit at eight school entrances, several of them on the exact roads parents use for drop-off, and they only run when the school-zone lights are flashing.
The trigger is more than 10 mph over the posted school-zone limit. Nothing less. In a zone posted at 20, that means the camera does not fire until 31.
Where the cameras are
Lakeland Police and the city list 14 camera positions covering these eight locations. Direction matters: at most sites only one approach is watched.
| School | Camera location |
|---|---|
| Lincoln Academy | 10th Street, EB and WB |
| Crystal Lake Elementary / Middle | N. and S. Crystal Lake Drive, EB and WB |
| Southwest Middle | S. Lincoln Avenue, WB |
| North Lakeland Elementary | W. Robson Street, EB and WB |
| Lakeland High | Hollingsworth Road, NB |
| Lakeland Highlands Middle | Lake Miriam Drive, EB |
| Sleepy Hill Elementary | Sleepy Hill Road, WB |
| Dixieland Elem. / Southwest Elem. / Southwest Middle | Beacon Road |
What a ticket actually looks like
The system uses radar. When a vehicle crosses the threshold, it takes one photo of the car and a second of the plate as it passes, stamping the image with date, time, speed and location. An officer at the Lakeland Police Department reviews and approves every potential violation before anything goes in the mail.
The notice goes to the registered owner of the vehicle, not to whoever was behind the wheel. It is a civil citation. The city says the $100 penalty carries no points against a driver's license.
It can be contested, the same way a red-light camera notice can. Owners can pay online at ViolationInfo.com using the notice number and PIN printed on the front, pay by phone, or mail a check to the City of Lakeland. Owners can also request a hearing, or file a notarized affidavit if someone else was driving or the vehicle had been sold or stolen.
If the registered owner does not pay, request a hearing, or submit an affidavit by the due date on the notice, the city says a Uniform Traffic Citation is issued instead. That is a different animal from a $100 civil notice. There is also a one-time 60-day extension available for the payment deadline.
8,000 warnings, and a car at 57
The cameras went in earlier this year and have been running in warning-only mode since. In that stretch, the department mailed roughly 8,000 warning notices to Lakeland drivers.
Assistant Chief Hans Lehman has pointed to what prompted the program in the first place: a run of pedestrian crashes, some inside school zones and some just outside them. He also described camera video of one driver moving through a Lakeland school zone at 57 mph.
Chief Sam Taylor said the point of the program was never to write tickets but to protect children, and that drivers who obey the posted limit will never get one.
The cameras are part of Lakeland's Vision Zero initiative, the city's effort to cut traffic deaths and serious injuries. City commissioners approved the school-zone program before installation began.
What to expect Tuesday morning
The flashing lights are the switch. Outside those windows, the cameras are not enforcing, which means an empty Hollingsworth Road at 8 p.m. is not a $100 problem. The morning and afternoon windows around bell times are.
Sleepy Hill Road, Lake Miriam Drive and Beacon Road all carry heavy commuter traffic that has nothing to do with school pickup, and drivers who never set foot on a campus are just as exposed as parents in the car line. Police have been pushing reminders on social media in the weeks leading up to the change.
The department has not said whether it plans to add cameras at additional school entrances. The full program details, including the payment and hearing FAQ, are posted on the city's School Zone Safety Program page.
Keep up with Lakeland news at Lakeland Community Website, and tell us how drop-off went at your school this week over in our Community Forum. For more coverage like this, read our latest public safety stories and education stories.
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