Albany establishes new court for red-speed ticket appeals

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - If you’ve gotten a red-speed camera ticket in an Albany school zone you have plenty of company. There have been so many, the city is overwhelmed with appeals.

Beginning in October, there will be a separate court held for Red Speed camera ticket appeals.

Since the start of the school year, thousands of tickets have been issued.

Chad Warbington, Albany city commissioner for Ward 4, said this is because a lot of people have been speeding.

“I know the Chief told us when such began, like in the first week, it was in the thousands. I mean the first week of school, definitely a lot of citations. A lot of people are speeding,” Warbington said.

Warbington said this might be due to people forgetting where the cameras are over the summer or what time they are on. So many tickets have been issued that it’s begun to backlog Albany’s municipal court.

“One of the complexities of the school zone citations is it’s a civil matter, not a criminal matter and so if you have a reason to contest your citation from the school zones, it’s not going to go through the normal municipal court system. We’re actually setting up a smaller, separate way for us to hear those appeals,” he said.

The superset court will be held at Albany’s police station at least once or twice a month.

“The person that is considered the officers that’s going to be hearing the appeals doesn’t technically have to be a judge,” Warbington said. “It just needs to be somebody that’s part of a police department that can talk through and understand what the appeal is to make a decision on that.”

Warbington said despite the many tickets being issued, he is starting to notice people slowing down in school zones.

Copyright 2022 WALB. All rights reserved.