The City of Smithville is one step closer to implementing speed-zone cameras in school zones. The cameras will be installed at the three school zones inside the city, Northside Elementary on Highway 56 North, DeKalb Christian Academy on Highway 56 south, and the DeKalb High School and Middle School area on Highway 70.

During the Smithville Board of Mayor and Aldermen’s regular monthly meeting on Monday, February 3, the board voted in favor of moving forward with a two-year contract with Blue Line Solutions, LLC of Chattanooga. Before the cameras are installed, the city will have to have a traffic study conducted, at an estimated cost of $15,000, but those cost will be reimbursed to the city by Blue Line.

After the study, Blue Line will install flashing lights on pedestals along with the radar cameras. The city will recoup its cost over time from the city’s share of speeding fines. The cameras are not expected until the 2025-26 school year, and are said to give drivers a 10-mph leeway on speeding tickets issued. The city and Blue Line Solutions will split the revenues from payment of fines.

Similar to automated license plate readers, Blue Lines’ laser-based LiDAR technology provides precise automated speed enforcement, ensuring that only vehicles violating speed limits are cited. ASETs identify vehicles and capture their speed through the use of a laser beam. The cameras capture the tag number of vehicles traveling over the speed limit in school zones.

Violators are then sent a citation in the mail. The penalty is a $50 fine, but unlike a ticket issued by law enforcement agencies, the citation is considered a civil infraction and can’t go against a driver’s record or insurance. The citations may still be challenged in the Smithville Municipal Court.

According to Ryan Moore of Blue Line Solutions, who addressed the board at the meeting, “All the violations will come to us in Chattanooga. A POST certified officer also has to review the citations. Tickets are then sent out by us and we collect and take care of all the money. On the 15th of every month you (Smithville) will get a revenue report on how many people paid their fines.”

Moore explained that there will be a grace period at the start of the program to make drivers aware. For the first 30 days, violators will be sent only warning letters. Following the 30-day period citations will be issued to those who have exceeded the 25 miles per hour school zone speed limit by at least 11 miles per hour, but only after a review of each case by the Smithville Police Department. No citations will be issued from this system when school is not in session or at other times of the day or night.

“We will erect a photo enforced sign on every side street into a school zone, and at the end of each school zone before you go in, we will put up a radar feedback sign on a 14-foot pole using LiDAR single beam technology,” Moore said.

“After they pass that last sign, they will have between 300 and 600 feet to slow down. This will be lane specific meaning we will monitor both lanes going east and west on Highway 70 and Highway 56, so it catches everybody coming and going both ways.”

There was some opposition expressed during the public comments section of the meeting, with Steven Cantrell addressing the board. “I am very concerned about Blue Line Solutions coming in here because it’s a money-making project, primarily for Blue Line, not for Smithville.”

“I have seen this type of organization work in the Washington DC area, challenges with calibration of the equipment, the fact that the equipment is operating on non-school days, the fact of people having to appeal the tickets, and the challenges of not being able to appeal the ticket in a normal courtroom fashion because there is not a witness available, only the camera.”

City Attorney Vestor Parsley answered some of the questions over the procedure for the tickets. “They have a right to have a representative from Blue Line come and testify about how the process works and how they take the picture, etc. If that hearing turns out against the city, that’s it. The city will benefit by receiving $25 as it is currently written. Fifty dollars is what the cost is, $25 of which goes to Blue Line.”