Traffic Cameras in Fredericksburg Generate $133,000-plus First Half of 2025
June saw the highest number of citations issued since the program began issuing live tickets in early January.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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The Fredericksburg City Council moved last June to install school zone speed cameras at three locations. One on Washington Avenue in front of James Monroe High School, and two on Cowen Boulevard — one facing eastbound traffic, one facing westbound traffic — near Hugh Mercer Elementary School.
The cameras went into operation on December 2, 2024, and issued warning citations through January 10, 2025. They began issuing live tickets on January 14.
Deputy City Manager Mark Whitley wrote in an email to the Advance on July 2, 2025, that the cameras’ “unaudited net revenue for FY 2025 is $133,728.83…. In terms of our fiscal year (July - June) this is a partial year, because the program went live in January with a warning period.”
According to the City Council’s resolution regarding the use of the proceeds collected, “the net proceeds from the program be considered for the development and implementation of pedestrian safety projects, with first priority for pedestrian safety projects near schools or along known pedestrian routes to schools.”
If no such projects are feasibly, the proceeds will be considered for school capital projects or debt service.
The Fredericksburg Police Department maintains a Summons Issue Transparency page that shows violations by camera per month. According to that site, 5,065 total citations have been issued through June 30, 2025.
The camera at Washington Avenue is responsible for a plurality of the tickets, recording 44% of all citations. Cowan Boulevard - Westbound - is responsible for the least, at 19%. Cowan Boulevard - Eastbound - is responsible for 37% of the citations.
In the November announcement on Fredericksburg Newsflash about the camera, CEO Holly Cooper of Altumint, the company that installed the cameras, said “The efficacy of speed cameras in school zones is well-documented. In similar programs across Virginia, we have seen a 75% decrease in speed violations within just three months. These results demonstrate that speed cameras are a crucial tool in protecting our most vulnerable road users—our children.”
Here in Fredericksburg, however, for the five full months that data is available, the number of citations has climbed each month except for May, when there were 168 fewer citations than in April.
The month of June realized the most number of citations issued yet — 1,376 — since installation.
The Summons Issue Transparency site lists the highest recorded speed for the warning citation period as 50 mph; during live ticketing in January, the highest recorded speed was 51 mph.
The site doesn’t list highest recorded speeds for the following months, but it does list average speeds of those receiving citations.
For the camera at Washington Boulevard, the average speed for ticketed vehicles was 27 mph each month between February and June. On Cowan westbound the average speed of ticketed vehicles was 37 mph for each month but two, February and May, when the average rose to 38 mph. The average speed of ticketed vehicles on Cowan eastbound was 37 mph from February through June.
The Advance spoke with Council members Will Mackintosh and Jason Graham regarding any complaints or related comments they may have received about the cameras.
Graham said his constituents had not brought any concerns or support to him about the cameras. Mackintosh said most people who have come to him appreciated that traffic is moving slower on Cowan.
According to a factsheet on the city website, incidents are “reviewed by the contractor, Altumint, [and] each citation is verified and approved by a police officer” before it is issued.
Those who receive a citation “may request a hearing to challenge an Automated Speed Enforcement Citation. The owner has thirty (30) days from the date of the issuance of the citation to contest an Automated Speed Enforcement Citation.”
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