Prince George’s County receives a share of the $40 fines issued by the county’s new fleet of speed cameras, while the contractor hired by county officials to implement the program stands to make a pretty penny as well. Optotraffic, which operates similar speed camera programs in a number of municipalities in Prince George’s County, earns 37 percent of each citation its cameras capture.
Prince George’s County keeps the remaining 63 percent, which it must spend on the county’s public safety programs.
County Executive Rushern Baker pushed for speed cameras, a program his predecessor, former Jack Johnson, refused to start. Johnson criticized the cameras, saying they amounted to an extra tax on residents.
The 14 initial cameras brought in more than $500,000 in the first month of the program. The county plans to expand and operate 72 mobile speed cameras at more than 100 sites.
With a large enough fleet of cameras, the county could be well on its way to exceeding the projections of the Prince George’s County Revenue Authority, which projects the program will generate about $7.5 million in revenue annually.
The authority’s projections are already higher than the $4.3 million from speed cameras included in Baker’s fiscal 2012 budget. – Ben Giles
