WASHINGTON, D. C. (Wednesday, July 19, 2017) –– “There’s no hiding place down here” from speed camera tickets in a large swathe of the Washington metro area, as more than two million motorists learned the hard way last year, especially in the nation’s capital and in its Maryland suburbs. A combined total of 2.1 million speed camera tickets were issued across the region in Fiscal Year 2016 in the District and on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. Four out of nine of the speed camera tickets were issued in Washington, D.C., which collected an unprecedented $99.1 million in revenue. Proof, area drivers are far more likely to receive a photo radar citation in Washington, D.C. proper than in all of the other surrounding jurisdictions combined, including Montgomery County, Prince George’s County and in nearly two dozen smaller precincts in Maryland’s most populous counties, notes AAA Mid-Atlantic. As evidence, the District, which launched its automated speed camera program in 2001, oversaw a spectacular yield of 994,163 speed camera tickets in FY 2016, an all-time record. It also comprises a twofold yearly upturn in speed camera tickets in the city.

With a vast arsenal of speed cameras, and a buildup of 148 launch sites, the District issued 45.8 percent of all area speed camera tickets. Drivers were slapped with 2,166,834 speed camera tickets in the city and leafy enclaves across suburban Washington, including Bowie, Capitol Heights, Cheverly, Chevy Chase Village and Greenbelt in FY16. That compares to the 1,780,194 speed camera citations issued in Washington D.C. and in its Maryland suburbs in FY15. With the District’s prodigious output, the tally comprises a 21.7 percent year-over year-increase in the sheer volume of photo citations across the region, in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, together with 21 bordering bailiwicks and outlying purlieus, ranging from College Park, to Gaithersburg, to Riverdale and other localities. Statewide, 39 Maryland jurisdictions reported speed camera data. Combined, they issued 1,556,441 citations in FY16, compared to 1,599,574 citations in FY15.   

“Each rush hour area motorists are forced to run the gauntlet. It seems they don’t have a ghost of a chance to avoid being monitored by speed camera systems on area roadways, except, of course, in Virginia, which is devoid of the devices by state law,” said John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Manager of Public and Government Affairs. “Since FY 2007, the District has issued 5.4 million speed camera tickets and derived more than a half billion dollars, $535,712,457, including for the first time ever, nearly $100 million in one year, in speed camera revenue. This explains why the systems remain ‘golden apples of discord’ in the minds of motorists who question whether the speed cameras are more about revenue than traffic safety.”

 The Tale of the Tape: Speed Camera Tickets in the Area

With the unblinking lens of its speed cameras trained on the license plates of speeding vehicles, the Montgomery County Police Department issued 529,993 speed camera tickets in FY16, the most in Maryland. That compares to 263,302 speed camera citations issued by the Prince George’s County Police Department during the same period. A veritable alphabet soup of smaller stomping grounds in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties issued 379,376 camera tickets in FY16, constituting a 22.8 percent overall decline from the 491,648 speed camera tickets they issued in FY15. Wholly, 44.4 percent of those automated speed camera programs are operated by a host of local police departments in suburban Washington, D.C., from Hyattsville to Rockville and from Landover Hills to Laurel, according to annual Speed Monitoring Systems [SMS] Reports compiled by the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission.

All of this pales in comparison to the District’s prowess in issuing speed camera tickets and its knack for generating speed camera ticket revenue. To put this in context, the District has issued 5.4 million speed camera tickets regardless of whom was driving the vehicle at the time and raked in $535.7 million in speed camera revenue since FY2007. In FY 2014, speed camera citations dipped drastically to 282,021 speed camera-issued tickets, and speed camera revenue plummeted to $37.4 million from $75.7 million during the previous budget cycle. It comprised the city’s lowest photo enforced camera ticket output since FY 2007.

But that was then. The speed camera program arrayed on streets in the nation’s capital is rebounding with a vengeance, as the District meted out nearly twice as many speed camera tickets in FY 2016 than it did in FY 2015. Instead of resting on its laurels, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPDC) mailed just shy of one million speed camera tickets, a total of 994,163 citations in FY 2016. That compares to 520,104 citations in FY 2015, as the number of tickets skyrocketed by 474,059 citations, a staggering twofold, or 91.4 percent, upsurge in the sheer number of speed camera citations, calculates AAA Mid-Atlantic, which obtained the data via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request it filed with the District Department of Motor Vehicles.

By the same token, total speed camera revenue for the District multiplied to just under one hundred million dollars for the city’s coffers last year. Greater than ever before, the District garnered $99,186,736 in speed camera revenue in FY16, compared to $55,367,328 in revenue during FY15, compounding by $43,819,408. It exceeds the combined FY16 speed camera revenue totals of $28,473,280 stemming from Montgomery County and Prince George’s counties, which was down from $32,121,321 in FY15.

In contrast, neighboring Montgomery County gleaned $19.7 million in gross speed camera revenue in FY 15, compared to $23.6 million in gross speed camera revenue in FY 16. Across the county line, Prince George’s County garnered $8.7 million in gross revenue from its portable trailer based speed monitoring program in FY16, compared to $8.5 million in gross revenue in FY15.  The Prince George’s County Police Department operates 77 mobile speed cameras countywide, while the Montgomery County Police utilizes 92 speed monitoring systems, deployed at fixed, mobile (van), and portable camera units (PCU’s) locations.