TAMPA, Fla. — A special magistrate over school zone speed camera appeals in Hillsborough County says the program, which has left thousands of drivers with $100 tickets, isn’t fair and, he says, because he was throwing out tickets, the county reassigned him.
Spectrum Bay News 9 Watchdogs have been investigating the county’s enforcement of the program for months.
What You Need To Know
Thomas Santarlas, a special magistrate who rules on school zone speed camera appeals, says he was reassigned after ruling against the county
Santarlas believes the program isn’t being fairly enforced by Hillsborough County and the sheriff’s office
County and sheriff’s office officials accuse Santarlas of being partial, yet have kept him serving as a magistrate over red light camera appeals
Until his reassignment in February, Santarlas was the only magistrate over traffic camera appeals in Hillsborough County for the last decade
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Every time a vehicle drives by a school zone speed camera, a picture and video are taken and your speed is calculated. If deputies determine you were speeding anytime during the day, you could be on the hook for a ticket.
After a notice of violation comes in the mail, drivers have two choices: pay the $100 fine or schedule an appeals hearing.
Our investigation revealed 73,000 violations spotted by the cameras during the fall 2025 semester. Of those, the sheriff’s office dropped more than 5,400.
Last summer, Special Magistrate Thomas Santarlas said he began raising issues with the county and sheriff’s office about how the school cameras were being enforced. But, he says, that fell on deaf ears until December, when the magistrate dismissed a number of cases. Now he has been reassigned and is sharing his experience.
“The school zone speed camera program is a very good program on paper. Unfortunately, it’s not being properly operated by the sheriff’s office,” Santarlas said to Spectrum Bay News 9’s Andy Cole.
Santarlas’ issue is with tickets issued during reduced speed times, often indicated by a blinking yellow light. All the video shows is the back of a vehicle and the pavement, not the location or that blinking light.
Special Magistrate Thomas Santarlas hears a case. (Spectrum News)
Florida law doesn’t require that the tickets show those details, but Santarlas believes that without it, he can’t fairly rule on tickets.
It’s a problem Santarlas says he has brought up for months, to no avail, until his December hearing. Spectrum Bay News 9 was there.
“Considering the totality of the circumstances, I believe that this program is not being managed properly. It’s confusing to drivers and lacks fundamental fairness in application. For these reasons, I cannot continue to uphold these cases against our fellow citizens. Now that doesn’t apply to radar-enforced violations,” said Santarlas at a December appeals hearing.
That day, Santarlas dismissed nine tickets and upheld another eight. When he threw one out, he made it clear why.
“I don’t have any evidence that the beacon light was there at the time. I go back to my same statement, with the red light cameras we see the lights, we see the intersection, we see everything around that area, and with this particular program for some reason all I’m seeing is a car and pavement,” Santarlas said in December.
After that December hearing, Santarlas says the county canceled the next in January.
This is a screenshot of one of the upheld traffic violations.
In early February, Santarlas got a letter and phone call from a county official telling him he had been reassigned.
“I do not have the authority to remove you. Only the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), as the appointing authority, can remove you. However, as the director of Citizen Boards Support, I do assign workloads and cases based on the need of the organization,” Frank Strom, a county official, wrote to Santarlas.
Santarlas says he was reassigned because he ruled against the county.
“I don’t think it is acceptable for the sheriff’s office, for the Hillsborough County attorney’s office to remove a sitting magistrate or a judge simply because they don’t like the rulings that he or she is providing,” said Santarlas, in an interview with Bay News 9.
We asked Hillsborough County six direct questions about why and how this reassignment happened.
On four, county spokespeople referred to the letter written by Strom, whose day-to-day job is to run the county’s veteran community services department. He also oversees the appeal hearings.
Strom denied the magistrate was reassigned because of his refusal to, “Rubber stamp the adjudications,” but said, “You can understand how expressing these concerns during public proceedings may be perceived as inconsistent with the impartial and neutral role expected of a special magistrate.”
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office echoed that saying. “When strong positions are publicly articulated on matters that may come before the court, it raises significant questions about neutrality and the fairness of the proceedings over which he presides,” the office said.
Former Miami-Dade County Court Judge Jeffrey Swartz says impartiality isn’t his concern here.
“First thing is, this guy has taken his job seriously, and he’s applied the law to the facts that he’s been given and said, ‘This is not enough, I’m dismissing the case,’” said Swartz, who also serves as professor emeritus at Tampa’s Cooley Law School.
“The second thing that’s happening here is that you now have a sheriff and a board who appoint this person saying, ‘We don’t like your rulings, you’re fired — or you’re reassigned.’ They know they can’t fire him for doing his job, so they took him out of the job he was doing and put him in another job,” Swartz said.
The sheriff’s office maintains they had nothing to do with Santarlas’ reassignment. Hillsborough County confirms Santarlas will no longer preside over school zone speed camera appeals.
He will, however, continue to serve as magistrate over red-light camera appeals.
“Think about this, in their letter from the county, they said I have, ‘personally attended’ your red light camera hearings and found you to be professional, fair and balanced, but in the same breath, they’re saying the opposite for the school zone camera program. How can that be?” Santarlas said in an interview with Spectrum Bay News 9.
We uncovered past letters of recommendation for Santarlas.
A senior assistant county attorney wrote that, “Dr. Santarlas has always displayed the highest standards in his adherence to the law and the ethical requirements.”
Commission Chair Ken Hagan wrote that Santarlas’s, “Experience and wisdom,” Have been, “Invaluable to [his] fellow board members and improved their decision making.”
What’s changed now? Santarlas is left wondering.
“Right is right and wrong is wrong; there is no in between especially in this particular situation. It is wrong for the sheriff’s office to continue to pursue cases against my fellow citizens when they know that they’re mismanaging this program,” Santarlas said. “When the magistrate from the fourth-largest county in Florida goes on the record and says this is problematic, they should take notice.”
Spectrum Bay News 9 reached out to all the county commissioners through email and phone, and state representatives Traci Koster and Susan Valdez, who helped write the bill that authorized school zone speed cameras in 2023, but none of them wanted to speak on camera.
Brian Lorentzen, the new magistrate brought in to replace Santarlas, hasn’t responded to our many requests for comment. We went to Lorentzen’s office Friday to talk with him and waited for more than two and a half hours, but were told by office staff that he was too busy.
For now, the program will continue as it has been. HCSO says they didn’t design the program or deviate from what the legislature has authorized, but should Tallahassee make any changes, they say they will conform with those.
Do you have something worth investigating? Reach out to Watchdog Investigator Andy Cole at andy.cole@charter.com, or you can send tips here.