The use of cameras to enforce speeding laws is spiking — with localities around the state raking in millions of dollars with the new systems.
But two decades cities in Hampton Roads — Suffolk and Chesapeake — account for nearly half of the $57.8 million in penalties collected from speeding drivers in school zones and highway work zones across the state.
Suffolk collected $16.7 million in fines between 2022 and ’24 — or 29% of the statewide total, according to reports that the Virginia State Police file to the General Assembly annually.
Chesapeake collected $11.5 million, or 20% of the state totals.
When much smaller numbers were added in from Portsmouth, Hampton, York County and Southampton, Hampton Roads collected $30.8 million, or 53% of the total statewide revenue.
Some of that money is used to pay the vendors running the camera systems, though their cut wasn’t immediately clear.
What is clear, however, is that more and more cities have signed on.
The number of localities using speed enforcement cameras jumped from five in 2022 to 39 by 2024. And this year, 53 cities and counties are now on board. Norfolk, Virginia Beach, James City County and Gloucester have launched systems — or soon will.
Meanwhile, the New Kent County Sheriff’s Office began running speed cameras on the Interstate 64 widening project, with the 70-mph zone typically shifting down to 60 mph. That’s resulted in thousands of tickets since July.
At a Virginia State Crime Commission meeting in August, Sen. Mark J. Peake, R-Lynchburg, fumed when he saw the 2024 collection numbers.
“I have to tell you, I’m looking at these totals, and I am appalled,” Peake said. “This is outrageous. We have to do something as a General Assembly.”
“Exactly,” said House Majority Leader Charniele L. Herring, D-Alexandria, who also serves as Crime Commission chair. “I was just about to talk about that.”
Peake contended that localities are raising the money to fund their own governments rather than for making the roads safer.
“Look at Suffolk,” Peake told his fellow lawmakers, noting the city collected nearly $8 million last year — which the senator pointed out does not include the separate collections from red light cameras.
“I am livid.”
Localities killed bill
More than 997,000 Virginians were mailed tickets from the speed cameras between 2022-24, according to the State Police reports. Of those, about 623,000 people paid the fines — a collection rate of 62%.
A measure filed in the last legislative session would have mandated that money collected by the speed cameras goes to the commonwealth transportation fund — to be doled out to localities later — rather than directly to cities and counties.
But Del. Karrie Delaney, D-Fairfax, the chair of the House Transportation Committee, said the localities wanted to hold onto their money stream, and their lobbyists “came out in force to kill the bill for that reason.”
“They’re not going to come up to the podium and say they oppose it, but clearly they were having one-on-one meetings with (lawmakers) saying they were opposing it,” Delaney said last week. “When the bill died, they were seen celebrating that the cities and towns were going to get to keep the money.”
A work zone speed camera sits in the 1500 block of Holland Road in Suffolk on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
Delaney asked the Virginia State Crime Commission in May to “identify a path forward for responsible expansion of photo speed monitoring technology” that balances concerns over privacy, public safety and where the money goes.
The Crime Commission plans to issue a report — and a recommendation for the next legislative session — in December.
Suffolk defends cameras
Suffolk City Manager Kevin Hughes defended his city’s heavy usage of the cameras, asserting the systems are improving road safety. The numbers, he said, prove drivers are slowing.
“It’s a drastic drop in speeding behavior in our work zones, which is really our goal and our mission,” he said. “We’re happy seeing people drive slower through our city.”
The two work zones — along Route 58 and Route 460 — have long been prone to safety concerns because those roadways are not interstate quality, he said.
“We want to make sure that we can put some additional safety mechanisms in place to keep people, motorists, construction workers, inspectors, everybody — the public in general — in a safer environment while we’re doing construction,” Hughes said.
On Routes 58 and 460, he said, the only thing between a construction worker and the road are often orange barrels and cones.
“And that doesn’t provide a lot of safety if you’re going over the speed limit.”
Hughes noted that under state law, the speed cameras only log a violation when someone is driving at least 10 miles over the posted limit. And the money raised in Suffolk, at least, go to public safety projects.
According to the State Police report, Suffolk took in $4.7 million in speed camera revenue last year from the Route 58 project: The 3.2-mile widening project on Holland Road.
In fact, that project alone took in more money than any other state city or county raised from their entire speed camera programs. Suffolk also ran work zone cameras on Pruden Boulevard and school zone cameras at 11 schools.
Hughes asserted they’ve made a difference.
On Holland Road, he said, speeding citations fell 34% from the first year of the speed cameras to the second. A report in August said they will be even lower this year.
Hughes provided numbers showing that in the two years before the speed cameras were deployed, that stretch of Holland Road had 239 car crashes. Those have fallen 21% since the cameras, to 188.
A truck travels by a photo-enforced school zone warning sign in the 3500 block of Pruden Boulevard prior to Nansemond-Suffolk Academy in Suffolk on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
As drivers got used to the cameras, Hughes said, school zone speeding citations across the city fell 45% from the first year of the cameras to the second.
Chesapeake had speed cameras at 14 schools in 2024.
The biggest money generators were the Deep Creek High School zone, which took in $1.1 million, and the Greenbrier Christian Academy zone, which took in $979,000 on Kempsville Road.
Speeding in Virginia
Drivers putting the pedal to the metal is a big concern in Virginia, according to Mena Lockwood, an assistant state traffic operations systems engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation.
More than 14,000 Virginians were involved in speed-related crashes in 2024, she said, adding that speed is a factor in 45% of fatal car crashes statewide.
“Speeding is prevalent in Virginia, and this isn’t just anecdotal,” Lockwood said. The data, she said, show that 18% of drivers at any one time are going at least 10 mph above posted limits.
Delaney said growing concerns about speed cameras at the General Assembly should not be interpreted as lawmakers being OK with speeders.
If someone is speeding, she said, they “absolutely deserve to get a ticket.”
“That’s not what this debate is even about,” Delaney said. “Our job as a legislature … is to make sure the devices are placed in appropriate places for safety and managed in a way that protects the public and is not a profit-making incentive.”
“There should not be a profiteering motive,” she added.
‘Notice of Violation’
A 2020 state law allowed Virginia localities to make money on the new camera systems.
The statute says such tickets can’t be more than $100, with the law requiring that a current or retired law enforcement officer review each violation. The citations don’t show up on someone’s driving record and aren’t seen by insurance companies.
Local attorney Tim Anderson has sued Suffolk and Chesapeake over the cities’ use of the systems.
Among other things, Anderson contends cities are breaking state law by allowing third-party vendors to send bills to hundreds of thousands of motorists. The statute, he said, requires court summonses to be issued with real court dates.
The “Notice of Violation/Summons” that Suffolk violators receive — complete with a photograph of their speeding cars — carries the city’s official logo. Yet the return address isn’t the police department or courthouse, but the vendor’s post office box in Maryland.
A work zone speed camera sits in the 1500 block of Holland Road in Suffolk on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)
Circuit Courts in both cities dismissed the lawsuits. Though the Virginia Court of Appeals recently turned down Anderson’s lawsuit against Suffolk — ruling that the cities enjoy immunity from litigation — he plans to take that case to the Virginia Supreme Court.
“They put these cameras where there’s the best chance of the driver missing the reduction of speed sign,” Anderson said. “That’s why I call them ‘speed trap cameras. They do studies and go out and say, ‘This is a good place. We could actually make a lot of money here.’ ”
New guardrails
A bill filed in the 2025 legislative session, sponsored by Del. Holly D. Seibold, D-Fairfax, attempted to strike a balanced approach.
On the one hand, her measure would have expanded the use of such cameras to pedestrian crossings and stop sign intersections. Seibold said speed cameras might have prevented the deaths of two Fairfax teenagers who were killed when another teen barreled into them at 81 mph in a 35 mph zone.
“They slow people down and prevent death,” she said of the cameras.
On the other hand, Seibold sought to add several new guardrails to increase public trust in such systems.
Her legislation would have mandated that two signs — one of them a flashing digital “feedback sign” to tell drivers how fast they’re going — be installed 1,000 feet before each camera.
“These cameras shouldn’t be a gotcha situation,” Seibold said. The whole point, she said, is not to make money but to get drivers to actually slow down.
Moreover, Seibold’s bill would have required that the money go to a commonwealth transportation fund rather than directly to the localities. The American Automobile Association, the National Safety Council and other groups said localities shouldn’t be making money off cameras they deploy.
“We learned that public support for safety camera programs can erode … when people believe their only purpose is to generate revenue,” she said during a House committee debate on the issue.
But Seibold said her proposal created “heartburn” for many localities, leading to significant opposition.
Late in the legislative process, Seibold said she was open to amending her bill to allow localities to keep the money so long as it was all earmarked for public safety. But the Senate Transportation Committee killed off the bill on a 9-6 vote.
Are officers reviewing tickets?
Anderson said that with all the citations coming in — more than 100,000 in Suffolk last year — there’s no way officers are properly reviewing all the tickets.
In one case, he said, a state trooper got a speeding ticket from a camera — even as he had his lights flashing and siren on. Another time, a man got a ticket on the car that a tow truck had pulled past a camera.
“There’s so much volume that they’re just hitting the ‘approve’ button,” Anderson said of the police reviews. “It’s a scam. I mean, there’s no way.”
But Mindy Carlin, a lobbyist for Suffolk, asserted that police officers “review every single citation,” and that nearly half are tossed.
“If there’s ever anything in question, if there’s any kind of fuzziness, those are thrown out,” she told lawmakers.
Hughes said terming the program a “scam” is “insulting and inaccurate.”
“We’ve been tested through the courts, and so everything we’re doing is legal and following state code,” he said. “It’s hard to scam if you’re following the law.”
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com
Originally Published: October 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM EDT
