\u201cThere has been an increase in fatalities, an increase in driver behavior that’s unsafe,\u201d Joshua Hickman, director of the city\u2019s Public Works Department, told the Watchdog. \u201cThe goal of this program is to \u2026 create a safer environment within our public right of way for all user groups, including vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and the like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long Beach\u2019s 18 cameras will be located<\/a> in all nine city council districts. The chosen locations are areas with a high volume of serious crashes and speeding incidents, including street takeovers, Hickman said. Others were chosen for their proximity to schools, he added.<\/p>\n Each camera will be accompanied by signage and speed feedback signs to warn drivers that they are approaching the cameras, according to Hickman.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important to us that this is not a \u2018gotcha\u2019-type system,\u201d Hickman said.<\/p>\n The system will be operational this month, but there will be a 60-day period during which speeding drivers will receive warnings, rather than tickets. In December, however, citations ranging from $50 to $500 depending on speed will be issued as laid out in the state bill, according to Hickman.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are opportunities for folks who can\u2019t afford that to work on alternative programs such as community service or reduced fair, pending income requirements,\u201d Hickman said. This was also a requirement in the bill.<\/p>\n The city estimates that the program will generate $5 million annually, half of which will be used to fund the program, while the other half will be reinvested into other traffic safety measures such as delineators, striping and \u201cother efforts to help calm down traffic within our residential neighborhoods,\u201d Hickman said.<\/p>\n If a certain camera is successful in reducing speeds consistently, or it stops generating revenue for some other reason, Hickman said the city can move it to another location.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would be great. That would be wonderful,\u201d Hickman said. \u201cIt means we\u2019d have a safer public right of way. It means we\u2019d have less speeding. It means we\u2019d have less fatal crashes and severe injuries, which is the intention of this program.\u201d<\/p>\n The city\u2019s goal is to see a 20% reduction in speeding, Hickman said. Other cities, such as San Francisco and Oakland, have reported dramatic decreases in speeding up to 80%, he added.<\/p>\n Public Works and Verra Mobility, the vendor that will be operating the camera system, can retain the confidential records and evidence, including the license plate picture, for up to 60 days after the case is settled, including appeals, according to the law.<\/p>\n The Long Beach City Council approved the contract with Verra Mobility during its Dec. 16, 2025 meeting<\/a>. The company announced the finalized contract in a Jan. 20 press release<\/a>. Several months later, on May 27, the stock price of the publicly traded company plummeted more than 70%.<\/p>\n In July, the Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz filed a securities fraud class action lawsuit<\/a> on behalf of Verra Mobility investors. The suit alleges the company failed to disclose that its \u201coptimistic plan\u201d for growth relied on uncertain contracts.<\/p>\n Is the program enforceable?<\/p>\n Some people are skeptical of the potential effectiveness of the program, claiming that its enforceability is questionable.<\/p>\n Kat Mays, a clerk typist III who has worked for Public Works for eight years, spoke out during the Sept. 8 City Council meeting, saying \u201cthe vibes are shitty in a crumbling city,\u201d playing off the city\u2019s self-applied moniker \u201cVibe City.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou are investing in things that the residents do not want, like the automated speed enforcement program,\u201d Mays said, adding that she has \u201cserious questions about how much [the program] can be enforced.\u201d<\/p>\n In a message to the Watchdog, Mays, who is also a union steward, said she had brought these concerns to Hickman in August.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t have an answer, he kind of danced around the question,\u201d Mays said.<\/p>\n The tickets are issued through Public Works, not the police department. Because it is issued to the owner of the car and not the driver, the ticket does not count as a point against anyone\u2019s driving record, per the state law.<\/p>\n When pressed about what enforcement mechanisms the city has in place to ensure tickets are paid, no clear answer was given.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn’t a ‘pay or else’ system. This program was built to change driving behavior, not to maximize punishment,\u201d spokesperson Jocelin Padilla told the Watchdog in a Sept. 15 email, adding that there is a multi-step process to contest the tickets as required by state law. \u201cIf someone goes through all of that, or simply doesn’t respond at all, the citation remains an outstanding civil obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n Hickman made it clear that the program is not affiliated with any law enforcement agency and that no data will be shared with any agency, including the Long Beach Police Department.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcf8<\/p>\n Brandon Richardson is an editor, photographer and reporter for the Watchdog. If this work is important to you, please thank him.<\/p>\n \u201c[Data] will not be shared with anybody \u2014 any law enforcement or any groups outside Public Works and our vendor [Verra Mobility],\u201d Hickman said.<\/p>\n While parking tickets are also a civil infraction issued by Public Works staff, the department is allowed to share that data. For example, it can notify the DMV of Such consequences will not be possible for the automated speeding tickets if, as Hickman says, no information will be shared with outside agencies. Similarly, the city would not be able to send the tickets to a collection agency.<\/p>\n Beyond Hickman\u2019s own words, one section of the law states the speeding tickets \u201cshall not result in the department suspending or revoking the privilege of a violator to drive a motor vehicle,\u201d which Public Works could not do on its own anyway.<\/p>\n A surveillance state?<\/p>\n Social media comment sections for months have been filled with residents expressing concerns that the speed camera program is a step toward a dystopian surveillance state. This year, Flock Safety has repeatedly made headlines, most notably for dozens of instances of police officers stalking women using the surveillance system.<\/p>\n Hickman was adamant that the system being installed across Long Beach is not similar to Flock, which records video and offers live surveillance feeds. By contrast, Hickman said the city\u2019s cameras are \u201cstatic\u201d devices that only take images of rear license plates when triggered by a vehicle traveling 11 mph or more above the limit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an automated license plate reader (ALPR) type system,\u201d Hickman said.<\/p>\n When asked directly if the cameras have the capability of recording video or providing live feeds, Hickman said \u201cthe devices that are being installed behind me do not have that capability.\u201d<\/p>\n But the website for the cameras says otherwise. The cameras are the Ekin Box Spotter<\/a>, which the company\u2019s website states are ALPRs with 4K real-time video capability.<\/p>\n \u201cCapture and analyze video footage to monitor traffic and identify potential hazards,\u201d the site reads. \u201cAutomatically read the license plate of every vehicle in the field of view with alerts for wanted and stolen vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n The cameras have other \u201cAI-powered monitoring\u201d capabilities, including red light monitoring and U-turn detection,\u00a0 according to the site.<\/p>\n Of course, just because the functions are available does not mean the city will use them. But, as advocacy group Human Rights Watch wrote in an Aug. 7, 2023 letter<\/a> to Senator Anthony Portantino expressing its opposition to AB 645: \u201cHistory tells us that, despite assurances at the outset, expansions of policing technologies and systems of surveillance often shift from temporary to permanent and from limited to expansive.\u201d<\/p>\n Under state law, facial recognition technology is prohibited as part of the speed camera pilot program.<\/p>\n \u201cTraffic speed enforcement is critical to efforts in California to reduce factors that contribute to traffic collisions that result in fatalities or injuries,\u201d the law reads. \u201cHowever, traditional enforcement methods have had a well-documented disparate impact on communities of color, and implicit or explicit racial bias in police traffic stops puts drivers of color at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n While the law seeks to eliminate racial bias by removing the human element, HRW argued that AB 645 would \u201ccontinue and replicate racial bias.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill outlines where cameras should be placed with a heavy focus on corridors with a history of traffic injuries and fatalities as well as geographic diversity.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in Oakland, for example, the network of streets throughout the city where historically over 60 percent of annual severe and fatal crashes have occurred covers areas that census data indicates would have higher concentrations of BIPOC and low-income community members,\u201d HRW wrote.<\/p>\n Between 2015 and 2019, \u201crace-neutral\u201d traffic cameras in Chicago ticketed households in majority Black and Hispanic ZIP codes twice as much as majority white ones, according to a 2022 analysis by ProPublica<\/a>. Similarly, William Farrell of the D.C. Policy Center<\/a> found that people in Washington, D.C.\u2019s Black neighborhoods were receiving more moving violations than people in white neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
unpaid parking tickets, which can result in a registration hold. When this happens, the person cannot renew their vehicle registration until the tickets are paid in full.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SPEED-CAMERA_9060.jpg\")
Brian Woodward, left, and Scott Musquiz, workers with KPA Constructors, prepare a speed camera for installation on Artesia Boulevard in North Long Beach Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. Photo by Brandon Richardson.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2024-ZIP-CENSUS-DATA.jpg\")
<\/p>\n