Canton police begin automated speed enforcement of school zones

On the first day school, Monday, August 2, 2021, the City of Canton Police Department began enforcing the speed limit at Hasty Elementary, on East Main Street, and Brown Industrial Parkway, according to a press release. The enforcement will be conducted using automated school zone cameras that were installed in March of last year. Cherokee High School and Teasley Middle School are in the process of GADOT approval for the same program.

The program was instituted after a nationwide spike in pedestrian fatalities over the past decade in which Georgia became one of the 5 deadliest states for pedestrians, with the seventh-highest fatality rate. Also, The Canton Police Department conducted speed studies within all of its school zones, which produced over 3,000 speeding violations in a single day.

The Canton program will target the most egregious speeders exceeding more than eleven miles per hour over the posted school zone speed limit in school zones. The cameras will operate from one hour before school begins until one hour after school ends, only on school days. A sworn officer reviews and approves each violation before a citation is issued. A thirty-day warning period is in effect before any citations are issued.